Tempers erupt at Johnston school board meeting after member accused of violating policy

Two Johnston County school board members nearly came to blows during a Monday special meeting where one of their colleagues was accused by investigators of violating board policy.

The school board received a report from its attorneys on a grievance that a district employee filed against school board member Michelle Antoine. The report, which Antoine had tried to block by filing a lawsuit to seal the documents, accused her of not upholding the integrity of her office during an investigation of an employee.

The often contentious meeting saw Antoine’s microphone being turned off as she accused the board of holding a “kangaroo court.” The meeting was briefly paused when board vice chair Terry Tippett and board member Ronald Johnson nearly gotten into a physical altercation.

“You are the most uninformed person, the most disrespected person, the most unprofessional person I’ve ever seen sit on the Board of Education or any board,” Tippett said to Antoine before turning to Johnson to tell him “don’t interrupt me right now.”

After a further exchange, Tippett got out of his seat and accused Johnson of threatening him, which Johnson denied.

Board chair Lyn Andrews put her hand on Tippett on try to calm him down.

Antoine tried to keep grievance details secret

According to the investigative report, an employee filed a grievance on May 9 accusing Antoine and a teacher of “inappropriate and unprofessional collaboration” in the filing of several allegedly false grievances during the 2022-23 school year.

Because the complaint involved district employees, the details of the allegations have not been publicly released. The report refers to the person who complained about Antoine as the “grievant” and the teacher who filed grievances against the grievant as “Employee 1.”

The grievant accused Antoine of slandering her.

The board was scheduled to receive the report on Sept. 12, the same day that Antoine filed a lawsuit in Johnston County Superior Court. Antoine got a temporary restraining order to block the report from being released, as well as a motion to have the details of the complaint sealed.

The school board had the case moved to federal court. On Sunday, one of Antoine’s attorneys filed to have the lawsuit voluntarily dismissed.

The timing of Monday’s special meeting was questioned by Antoine and Johnson.

“We’ve got 500 vacancies in this county, and we’re chasing Michelle Antoine over what?An email?” Johnson said. “We got 500 vacancies in this county. We can find other things to meet about.”

Katie Cornetto, the board’s attorney, said the restraining order expired Friday. Andrews said she scheduled the report to be presented on Monday morning because the board retreat was already planned for that day.

Antoine accused of violating board policy

The board’s attorneys interviewed the grievant and put her complaint into three allegations. All the details about the first allegation were blacked out because attorneys said it involved confidential personnel information.

On the second allegation, the investigators said there was no evidence that Antoine had worked together with Employee 1 to draft or file the three grievances against the grievant.

But investigators said Antoine violated board policy on the third allegation “because she was not completely honest with investigators when asked if she had ever accessed or viewed” Employee 1’s grievances. The report says Antoine accessed and downloaded two of the teacher’s grievances.

The report says Antoine should have simply referred the teacher’s grievance to the proper administrative employee instead of writing “a highly detailed response” to Superintendent Eric Bracy.

“While Ms. Antoine told investigators that she only referred to Board policy and school system personnel to address grievance, the unsupported and disparaging comments made in Ms. Antoine’s March 9, 2023 email about (grievant) amount to individual action prohibited by Board Policy 2122,” according to the report.

The report says Antoine “failed to uphold the integrity and the independence of her office and failed to avoid impropriety in the exercise of her duties” when “she shared inflammatory, confidential personnel information” about the grievant with three district employees on March 9.

Antoine called the allegations false.

Antoine calls it a ‘kangaroo court’

The board voted 5-2 to accept the report and to allow Antoine to file an affidavit responding to the allegations. Antoine and Johnson were the dissenting votes.

Tippett noted that the affidavit would be made under oath “with the possibility of committing perjury.”

Antoine charged that the board was denying her due process rights by not allowing her to ask questions during the board meeting. She also said the meeting should have been done behind closed doors.

“We are in a kangaroo court, a quasi-judicial board that can’t answer a simple question,” Antoine said.

Andrews said the purpose for the meeting was only to receive the report.

“You’re going to have the opportunity to share your story, but you’re going to do it in the form of an affidavit,” Andrews said.

Ongoing school board strife

Monday’s meeting is the latest chapter in the ongoing school board strife in North Carolina’s seventh-largest school district.

In June, Johnson filed a federal lawsuit against multiple parties, including the school board and the Town of Smithfield, over his dismissal from the Smithfield Police Department and indictment on criminal charges.

The board has previously censured Johnson and has tried to remove him from office.

Antoine was the only board member not named as a defendant by Johnson in his lawsuit. Both his lawsuit and the criminal case against him are ongoing.

Antoine, a member of the conservative group Citizen Advocates For Accountable Government, was elected to the board in November. She’s one of the Republican members of the officially non-partisan school board.

Antoine had campaigned on issues such as opposing Critical Race Theory, with statements such as “schools must stop being centers of social justice.” Johnson had supported her election bid.

Antoine a ‘political target’?

After winning election, Antoine unsuccessfully backed Johnson’s bid to become school board chair. Antoine accused the board of making her a political target.

“This is exactly what you did to Ron Johnson,” Antoine said Monday.

Later in Monday’s meeting, Johnson brought up the confrontation with Tippett. accusing the vice chair of challenging him to a fight. Tippett said he only did so when Johnson threatened him.

“We’re not going there where you two are going at it again,” Andrews said to prevent a second confrontation.

The meeting ended with Antoine interrupting Andrews as she thanked the district’s employees for their hard work.

“You hold kangaroo courts,” Antoine said to Andrews. “But you do. I asked you to stop the circus when I got on this board in December. I asked that you stop going after people politically and focus on students and you refused to do it.”