After Dennis Closures were announced, I attended the June 13th Board of Education Meeting to hear any updates from the District and interview District officials about transparency.
The schools were inspected during the last day of school, and closed the following day due to structural concerns, on May 31st, 2023.
You can listen to the full interviews and read the ai-generated transcripts.
Denise Swarthout
I asked Denise Swarthout, the District's Communications Officer, why DPS didn't disclose the structural concerns before the inspection, what the District's plan for transparency is, and if Kent Metzger (the Buildings & Grounds Director) was available for interview.
Swarthout directed me to speak with Superintendent Dr. Rochelle Clark, the spokesperson for the District, and to review the District webpage, though the webpage does not address my questions.
I asked Board Secretary Melissa Bradford if I could speak with Dr. Clark, and she said "No, sir. Not right now, you can talk to Denise Swarthout." We had some back and forth, but it went nowhere. During the exchange Swarthout says to Clark "We can discuss that."
Then the Board meeting started. There were no updates on Dennis at the meeting, though I spoke about Dennis and so did two others.
Mark Reynolds
Afterward, Board of Education member Mark Reynolds approached me to speak as an individual - not as a representative of the Board.
Reynolds asked how transparency could be pursued and suggested getting coffee sometime.
I suggested timely publishing of purchase orders, which would have given the public earlier notice of BFW's March 23rd inspection proposal. Reynolds was critical, saying one problem was "you tell competition what they lost to," which "kind of puts the winners at a disadvantage."
Reynolds says "But I'm not naysaying the idea of transparency because it was one of the things that I campaigned on," and that he wants to "do everything I can" to improve the District's "bad reputation about transparency".
I proposed a sort of "sunshine act" allowing journalists greater access to District information, but ultimately we agreed I would send him my article after publishing, which would contain more suggestions, and he expressed interest in meeting to discuss further.
Reynolds provided his personal email mark.reynolds5180@yahoo.com so I could follow up.
I later contacted him, offering to "meet and discuss," but Reynolds simply replied "Not interested"
Jason Dion
I then approached Board of Education Vice President Jason Dion, who declined to answer questions, saying "It'll be hard to reach me" and that the Board President, Bill Clevenger, is the spokesperson for the Board.
While I was speaking with Dion, security personnel asked me to leave, saying he had to close up.
Jason Dion would later reach out on Facebook (#1, #2), saying "I would be more than willing to have an in-person conversation."
We spoke at length after the June 27th Board of Education meeting, which I will cover later.
Al Scheider
I spoke with Board of Education member Al Scheider in the parking lot. Part of the interview was lost due to him speaking quietly.
Scheider said he first heard about the issues on May 30th, the evening before the school closures were announced.
He added "And as far as other structural things, Kent [Metzger, the Buildings & Grounds Director] had twice this year, has gone through a whole list of all the schools and what they were doing."
Scheider says he didn't read the list because he doesn't understand construction, but that he recently asked Metzger how it was going. According to Scheider, Metzger said "construction hasn't gone as good as I hoped."
Scheider asked to make an off-the-record comment, and I allowed him to.
I asked if Scheider had any policy ideas to mandate more transparency in the future, and Al said "I don't know how; I agree with being as transparent as; I'm not good about writing policy." He says he would like to work on it, but "I don't have any specifics."
Scheider is at least glad the issues have been announced to the public, adding "This is all happening so fast."
Afterward
I saw Dr. Clark and Melissa Bradford in the parking lot & hollered for Dr. Clark. Bradford appeared to notice me & appeared to gesture to Dr. Clark, who proceeded to enter her vehicle and close her door.
Bradford followed suit, I yielded, and we all departed.
Since June 13th, I have made several attempts to get interviews and ask questions, but have been largely unsuccessful with District administration. I have gotten follow-up interviews with Board members.
I briefly spoke with Dr. Clark at the July 11th Board meeting, and she asked me to send her my other questions via email, which I did on Thursday July 13th.
I will cover these other interviews & questions at a later time.