On MV-BT School- Counterpoint: Meet your constituents where they are
Tue, 06/10/2025 - 2:08pm
admin
A Point/Counterpoint
Publisher's note: Two Howell County reporters present opinions on the Mountain View-Birch Tree R-III School Board meeting on May 22. Contributing writer and Mountain View bureau reporter Laura Wagner presents a point HERE. Publisher Amanda Mendez offers a counterpoint below.
“You will follow the rules, or you will be removed.”
These ten words may well be the death knell for public trust in the Mountain-View Birch Tree school board. On the other side of this page, my esteemed colleague and regular contributor Laura Wagner argues that school boards, and other small governing boards, have agendas to get through. They have business to handle. That business must be conducted according to certain rules, and that business ought to be conducted in a business-like manner. Largely, she’s right. The two of us spend a lot of time and ink watching and describing these meetings across Howell County.
My counterpoint is two-fold: (1)The school board’s first job is not to run an orderly meeting, but to adequately represent it constituents. The unrest in the community surrounding the recent administrative changes at Birch Tree and Mountain View elementary schools is well known. The unrest in the community surrounding Kevin Heiney, registered sex offender and spouse of Liberty Middle School principal Tammy Heiney, is well-known. A petition has been circulating for months. Community concerns were in no way mysterious, and the board should have been better prepared to be compassionate and engaged.
Laura says there’s a right and a wrong way to accomplish things, but I say the responsibility here lay with the school board to be welcoming and inclusive, and truly attentive to community concerns. Not, “You will follow the rules, or you will be removed.”
Those are not the words of an elected official who was listening to a constituent, but rather one who was waiting to blow the whistle when they broke the rules. Robert’s Rules and other board best practices are likely completely foreign to the average citizen.
Interruptions and removal followed by silence is not good representation.
Speaking of rules, or rather Missouri’s Sunshine Law, brings me to point (2). “Personnel” is not a reason to close a public meeting. In this meeting, a speaker was shut down with, “Let me stop you right there. We can’t talk about personnel issues in open session.”
This is factually incorrect. The school board cannot and should not refuse to hear personnel concerns, generally, in open session. Let me be clear – it does not matter if anyone names names.
Missouri’s Sunshine permits, but does not require, exceptions to open meetings for specifically, “Hiring, firing, disciplining or promoting of particular employees by a public governmental body when personal information about the employee is discussed or recorded…where the term ‘personal information’ means information relating to the performance or merit of individual employees.”
There is also an exception that allows for the closure of personnel files, as in the actual documents, but case law does not interpret this exception to apply to the spoken word.
The public may discuss personnel matters in open session. They are not the ones doing the hiring and firing. A governing body may choose to shield hiring, firing, disciplining, or promoting discussion about particular employees in closed session, but that’s it. That list is exclusive, and closing a meeting is a choice. It is not a default requirement. “Personnel” is not a blanket term under the law.
It’s my job to know these rules and distinctions, and it’s my job to tell the public when a governing body breaks them.
In the end, Laura and I agree on one important thing. The level of unrest and mistrust in Mountain View should not have been addressed in a school board meeting. She thinks the school board did a good job in the circumstances. I disagree.
But where we come back into accord is that a public forum, or a town hall meeting, is the best way to clear the air. An impartial moderator, like the trusted local media, can and should offer an event where the public can feel heard and elected officials won’t feel like sitting ducks. Laura and I have attended hundreds of school board meetings between us. We both care about, and are familiar with, the rules. And we both love Mountain View.
The ball is in your court, Mountain View-Birch Tree R-III. This is my third offer to host a town hall. Are you game?