Patrons & New Board Members Speak at Conway School Board Meeting

Only two patrons signed up to speak to the Conway School Board at its June 13 meeting. Board President Andre Acklin invited new Board members Sheila Franklin and Trey Geier to speak, as well.

Joyce Jones Comments

The first patron to speak, Joyce Jones, spoke in favor of Franklin and Geier, saying she’s looking forward to “less bullying from all of us.”

She said she “hopes your ideals [will] become free from a national party and from a Red State agenda, yet elevated to totally be concentrated on reading, writing, and arithmetic along with offering a work environment where teachers are free to teach without feeling the need to frequently look over their shoulders….” Some audience members applauded her remarks.

Meraviglia Comments

Next was regular Board critic, UCA employee, and self-described witch Hypatia Meraviglia who, to audience applause, once again berated the Board about policies approved almost a full year ago — as happens at each monthly meeting with a speech that begins, “I’m trans and my pronouns are they and them.”

Meraviglia’s speech concluded, “.. members Franklin and Geier, you are carrying our hopes, our joy, and our struggles for liberation! … We suggest you issue a recommendation for teachers and administrators that protects and respects trans students so they can focus on their education….”

Meraviglia FOIs Cost $28,000

During the Board members’ response time, Board member David Naylor — after explaining “I’m just a numbers guy” — said FOI requests from Meraviglia had cost the District about $28,000 so far, “not counting our educators getting taken away from education….”

“Did we find what we are looking for and how is that helping our District?” Naylor asked. “How is that helping our kids and our teachers? And I’m talking all the kids and all the teachers.”

“Are You Getting What You’re Looking For?”

Superintendent Dr. Jeff Collum later asked, “We’ve supplied tens of thousands of documents and spent hundreds of hours … are you getting what you’re looking for?” He said the District has expended some $40,000 on FOIA requests — which makes Meraviglia’s portion some 70% of that total cost.

Acklin added, “We want to try to get to the root of the question so we can save some of this money….”

Collum opined,

What districts have to begin to look at to make it [FOIA requests] efficient, you either have to hire someone who can do this, or you’re now taking up — in some of these cases — three to four people that we pay a lot of money to … and the reason that’s required, there’s a lot of legal processing that goes on with these requests.

We’ve had to send a lot of these to our attorneys … “The burden eventually will return to the taxpayer and you’re beginning to tie up taxpayer dollars … at some point you start spending an inordinate amount of money to meet that number of requests…

Acklin observed

What happened to just sitting down and talking about things and just having a conversation when you don’t agree with people and just sit down and talk about it? … I’m willing to listen, I am. I’m sure all of these board members are willing to listen. Dr. Collum, I know he’s willing to listen…

Geier and Franklin Comments

When invited to speak, Geier briefly commented on how humbling it was that “10% of Conway voted” in the recent School Board election; Franklin also commented on the historic turnout.

Franklin said she ran “to serve, not to be served,” and also requested “a larger venue” for Board meetings because “you will keep showing up as long as there’s drama.” She predicted that “when our business becomes about … getting numbers and such … keeping good administrators and teachers,” the Board’s business would become “boring” and perhaps attendance would change.

Promising not to use the word “indoctrinated,” Franklin urged “top-notch education for every student in the District” while challenging “each one of my fellow members, along with myself, that we set a positive atmosphere for our District…. We’ve got to get past this [the past problems] and move on” — seemingly the same message incumbent Board members have expressed during the past school year.

After Franklin had commented “on behalf of the Board,” Acklin responded with a laugh, “Thank you … Sheila, one thing you’re going to learn is these folks speak for themselves.”

Here’s the entire School Board meeting:

Videos edited from original video on Faulkner County’s YouTube channel.)

Visit Faulkner County Reports on YouTube for more videos and video excerpts from this and other County meetings and events.