During the Newfield Central School District Board of Education meeting on Thursday, Jan. 19, Melissa Rynone, a member of the board, called for the resignation of board president Christina Ward over breaking rules about correspondence outside of meetings.
According to Rynone, on Saturday, Jan. 7, Ward sent an email to the board and its superintendent, Eric Hartz, about options for the board evaluations and retreat, stating that it was acceptable to have back-and-forth email conversations about the retreat. Rynone said that because Ward stated the cost of one of the options in the email, it constitutes an expenditure of public funds, and is board business that must be covered during a public meeting. Rynone also brought up how Ward sent an email on Friday, Jan. 13, thanking board members for responses outside of an email thread.
"What communication outside of the email thread?" Rynone said. "There shouldn't be any, and I wasn't privy to it."
Rynone said Ward had stated they would approve an expenditure of $300 at the next meeting, and called it a "blatant violation" of the rules requiring public expenditures to be approved at public board meetings.
"As board president, I feel you are setting a poor example by not following the rules that have been covered numerous times, so for the record, I'm calling for your resignation as board president prior to our next meeting," Rynone said.
Ward declined to respond to Rynone's request for her to resign but thanked her for choosing to make it at the board meeting, instead of in any other way. She recalled how she spoke with Derek Dorsey outside of the board meeting to decide when and how they could meet, and said it was an acceptable conversation to have outside of meetings.
Rynone conceded Ward's point but stated that disclosing the cost in the email was a violation of the rules, since expenditure of funds was board business and had to be discussed and decided in a public session. In response, Jeremy TenWolde said the statement of the cost would be acceptable, but discussing the cost would not be, and Rynone said it was possible that conversation had occurred outside of the email thread. Rynone also said that the statement that the board would be voting on this is a violation of the rules, but Ward said Rynone could vote against it if she so desired. At this point, the conversation ended.
The News Chronicle reached out to Rynone and Ward for comment, but neither responded to the requests.
Later in the meeting, the board unanimously voted to approve a resolution authorizing paying $300 for the Central New York School Board Association's facilitation of the district's self-evaluations.