Jean Skelton, school board discussions reach an impasse

April 18 saw another dispute between Jean Skelton and the Hot Springs County School Board.

“I know you guys are dealing with hard stuff every day,” Skelton said. “I honestly, truly believe your hearts are in the right place.”

To that end, while Skelton acknowledged her differences of opinion with the board, she asserted, “It doesn’t mean my heart’s not in the right place.”

Skelton reiterated that $672,000 of expenditures had been incorrectly placed by the auditor, who was paid $34,000, and while he corrected and re-issued the audit, Skelton was not able to verify whether the federal funds had also been corrected.

Skelton noted the school district’s former business administrator had correctly amended the budget, so there was no budget violation.

Skelton also corrected her own previous statement, asserting students had called board trustee Clay Van Antwerp, when she clarified she’d intended to say parents had called instead.

“The culture at the school is really important,” Skelton said. “It starts at the top, with you guys. You’ve set the example, in the way you’ve treated me  You’ve said I’ve wasted your time, and caused your work to double. I became the one who took your wrath, because I brought you facts. When I insisted I wanted real answers, it got even uglier.”

Skelton claimed this “is why people don’t want to come to you, or this administration, because there’s actually no openness to hear where a problem might be.”

After asserting that the school board should represent the district’s core values and its taxpaying constituents, Skelton again took exception to being accused of “wasting time” for her inquiries into the audit.

“It was said I was wasting your time trying to understand why you received the label of being a high-risk audit,” Skelton said. “I wanted to understand what happened to $672,000. That’s not time wasted when it’s $672,000 of somebody else’s money. I thoroughly researched the matter. I presented facts. And I was still treated with disrespect and hostility.”

Skelton claimed the school board had “received detailed facts, from multiple parents, regarding the bullying of children, but because it does not fit in with the narrative of the administration, you dismiss those facts as hearsay.”

Skelton argued that the “attitude” with which the board had treated her, with “the yelling, the eye-rolling, the outright disrespect,” would discourage a student “who does not have the confidence or the education I have” from speaking out, especially if they have “a troubled homelife.”

Skelton again declared, “This attitude starts at the top. You are dealing with lives. You set the culture. Your student trustee said you have to give respect to earn respect. We need to feel that in this community.”

Van Antwerp responded by asserting he’d “begged” Skelton “for detailed facts,” which led to claims and counter-claims between the two.

“I want you to give me one detailed fact that you’ve given me that we can work on,” Van Antwerp said.

“I gave you facts,” Skelton said.

“Repeat that fact, then, because I don’t have one fact,” Van Antwerp said.

“How many facts did I give you about the audit?” Skelton said.

“I’ve never argued with you about that,” Van Antwerp said.

When Skelton repeated that the school board needed to deal with the bullying in the schools, her exchange with Van Antwerp proceeded in a similar fashion.

“Give me one incident,” Van Antwertp said.

“You’ve had multiple parents give you instances,” Skelton said.

“I did reach out to a parent, and if the parent would give me permission to speak about what I have done, I would be more than happy to do it,” Van Antwerp said.

School board vice-chair Nichole Weyer ultimately cut short the argument by telling Skelton, “I feel like we have allowed you to come and speak at every board meeting for a number of months, (and) you said we have been disrespectful to you. What we have done is maybe argued with some of the points you have made. For instance, you just said we told you that you were wasting time. We never said you were wasting time with us.”

Instead, Weyer clarified that she believed Skelton had “wasted time” by calling multiple school district staffers, “and using up tons of their time,” so much so Weyer alleged the auditor had blocked Skelton’s phone number.

“I have never called the auditor, ever,” Skelton said. “That is a flat-out lie.”

Weyer insisted it was not a lie, and declared the meeting would move on from this discussion.