After two Racine Unified School District Board of Education members boycotted a meeting on Monday night over proposed changes to the employee handbook, a special board meeting has been scheduled for Thursday, Aug. 20.
But the items to be discussed at the special meeting won’t include the employee handbook changes.
School board members Dennis Wiser and Julie McKenna did not attend the school board meeting Monday night because they believed there should be more than six board members present for a controversial vote on the employee handbook.
Aaron Eick, vice president of the Racine Education Association, said they have asked board members Dennis Wiser and Julie McKenna to either not show up to the board meeting or walk out once the item comes up for discussion. If board members Dennis Wiser and Julie McKenna don’t show up to the meeting or walk out tonight, the board won’t have enough members to vote on the issue.
Racine Unified School District administrators called on Wiser and McKenna to reconsider that decision, but the meeting ended up being cancelled Monday, which is why the meeting has been rescheduled.
“The school board agenda for August 17 contains action relating to the RUSD Employee Handbook,” according to the press release. “The language itself is not the issue – no matter how it reads, final authority for all decisions rest with the school board.”
The handbook changes represent a policy change, which — according to the district’s Governance Committee — the district is required to review and recommend to the board and “steps have been skipped,” Wiser said.
The special board meeting will be held at 5 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 20 at the Racine Unified School District administrative service campus, 3109 Mt. Pleasant St., Building #1.