BY KARISSA MILLER
The Iredell-Statesville Schools Board of Education voted 4-3 on Monday evening to oust Mike Kubiniec from his position as vice chairman.
Board members Doug Knight, Charles Kelly and Abby Trent joined Chairman Bill Howell in supporting the motion to remove Kubiniec from his leadership role.
“In my opinion, it’s your goal to tear down public education and not build it up,” Howell said of Kubiniec. “Some of the board members are unhappy with you and your behavior. That’s why we are discussing this tonight.”
After Kubinec was officially ousted, the chairman asked for nominations for a new vice chairman.
The board then voted 5-2 to elect Kelly as vice chairman.
The board room was packed with community members Monday night. Half of the audience appeared to support Kubiniec, and the other half wanted him out as vice chair.
After the vote, some cheered and clapped, and others expressed their dissatisfaction by booing.
In an otherwise orderly meeting, a small rift occurred when a Kubiniec supporter became vocal and began arguing with the chairman. The man was quickly removed by Troutman police.
Next, Chairman Howell raised the possibility of censuring Kubiniec.
“Censure means that the board is unhappy with some of the things Mr. Kubiniec has been doing. It’s nothing more than slapping his hands and saying stop,” Howell explained.
During last week’s meeting, the chairman handed out a letter that cited numerous reasons for sanctioning the then-vice chair, including:
♦ Bringing a non-school visitor for a visit to a school without prior permission or notice on more than one occasion. Not requiring the visitor to sign in upon arrival at the school.
♦ Not providing an inviting environment for staff and students.
♦ Working against the Superintendent and the Board in policy decisions regarding students.
♦ Making multiple requests from employees without the full approval of the Board. Treating employees as though they report to you and monopolizing employees’ time, which takes away from their normal duties.
♦ Not following process and procedures for school district operations.
♦ Breaking school board policies by sending out a survey on I-SS email.
Howell shared some specifics, including “accusing the personnel director of not doing his job because we still have open teaching positions” to “questioning the superintendent on many issues that are state law.”
“You waste time to make yourself look important,” Howell added.
Kubiniec then addressed the board for more than 30 minutes, defending his work as a board member and denying any wrongdoing.
“My rights to due process have been grossly violated,” Kubiniec said. “These charges are so nonspecific — that I don’t know what they are referring to.”
For example, he said he had no idea what employees time he was monopolizing.
“That’s poor leadership and that’s what is happening here today. All of these so-called charges aren’t even alleged charges. These were first brought to my attention last week,” he said.
Board member Anita Kurn made a motion to table the vote on the censure. Her motion failed to pass.
School board attorney Dean Shatley advised the board that Kubiniec has the right review the evidence against him before the board voted on whether to censure him.
The board then voted to meet in closed session to review personnel matters and “give Kubiniec his due process.”
After about 30 minutes in closed session, the board returned to open session.
“It has been decided that we give Mr. Kubiniec some time to review the information that I had. I did caution him that there were names on there that they should not get into the public. I will be very unhappy if that happens,” Howell said.
During the open session, however, board members made pointed comments about Kubiniec’s work as a board member.
“Since joining this board, I have noticed a strong sense of discord, which is now obvious. Rather than working together to accomplish what’s best for the children, some on this board have become sidetracked with other agendas,” Trent said.
Knight, who said he supported the motion to censure Kubiniec, admitted that he made mistakes after he joined the board member.
“I did some things I wish I would have done better. … I’m a big believer in grace,” Knight said.
Knight, also prefaced his statements by explaining that he wasn’t there to put anyone on trial, but said that last week at the Committee of the Whole meeting he discovered another reason he felt Kubiniec should be censured.
He explained that during the Q&A with Oakwood IB School, Kubiniec found a way to ask a question that put the superintendent in a bad light.
In a statement like question, which Knight mentioned, Kubiniec accused the IB middle schools of taking all the high-performing kids and wondered why the district is spending money on the IB program when there are so many low-performing schools in the district.
“That question — why would it be asked in a public session? It’s only to sew public discord between the IB program and the superintendent. It’s the opposite of what a school board should do,” Knight said.
Obviously Crying Brian Sloan reads these comments and takes them waaaay too seriously. I wasn’t sure if he actually shed any tears last night, but he came close. He called us keyboard warriors! Lol.
I’m hereby removing Mike “Uh” Phelps as the official puppet master. He didn’t speak up to defend his boy Captan K.
Shame on you.
The new puppet master title goes to perennial public commenter Paula Mimnaugh, formerly of Montgomery County, Maryland. She sure did turn out her followers last night! Unfortunately, half of them left before their opportunity to speak because the meeting was running late and it was waaay past their bed time. Keep up the good work, Puppet Master Paula. Keep pulling those strings and writing those speeches.
No, he just sent his mommy to the podium again in his place. He likes to be behind the scenes and I figure he gave Captain Krazy & Cryin Brian the script for their little speeches last night, and the idea to stall the way they did. An absolute joke!
If you have questions about “mommy’s” reasons for her public comments, ask me. Yes you are keyboard cowboys and not man enough to ask for a civil conversation of the one you want to besmirch.
I’m so happy to see that something is being done about this in favor of the students instead of the school board members. The only “agenda” that matters is the children’s right to receive a good education in a safe environment. Anyone, or anything, that deviates from that should be removed immediately before damage is done. Hopefully, a lesson is learned from this and it doesn’t happen again.
Congratulations, Mr. Kelly. Please try to bring some dignity back to this circus. You’ve got your work cut out for you.
I am glad that the board has made the hard choice to enforce some accountability in this situation. I am concerned that the people named in the background information may face exposure and retaliation. Mr. Kubiniec strikes me as that sort of immature, petty person who would want to “get even.” I hope the board holds him accountable to maintain that confidentiality.
In other news, I have to admit that I was originally skeptical of Abby Trent as a board member. But I think she is coming to an understanding of her role and responsibilities to the school system. She turns up at school events, showing support for the students and teachers. I would encourage her to continue growing in the role, developing some independence and demonstrating reasonable approaches to the real issues that need to be solved. Thank you.
Has anyone looked up the OG puppet master’s arrest record? Pretty disturbing to say the least.
That was some school board meeting!
At the October 9th meeting, chairman Howell enthusiastically displayed his dislike for fellow board member, Mike Kubiniec, in both words and by facial expressions.
Howell’s objective was to remove Mr. Kubiniec from his vice-chair office, then censure him for speaking out and violating board procedures, although, more likely, for questioning, or proposing amendments to, several of the board’s sacrosanct policies and procedures.
Having first made public his list of accusations in a self-serving interview in the Iredell Free News, at the board meeting, the chairman passionately reiterated his numerous charges against Mr. Kubiniec in great detail. Many of those charges are trivial beyond belief, such as Mr. Kubiniec walked through the wrong school doorway, asked the school supervisor too many questions, and failed to to provide an “inviting atmosphere”, whatever that means. The chairman even quipped that Mr. Kubiniec brought a too large stack of papers to the meeting.
When finally given the opportunity to speak, Mr. Kubiniec vigorously defended himself by addressing and absolutely rebutting each of the chairman’s lame complaints. Then he pointed out that under Mr. Howell’s leadership, the board itself repeatedly failed follow its own policies and procedures, much to the chairman’s ire.
Following a motion made by Mr. Howell himself, several board members towed the line, and unfortunately the vote was 4 to 3 to remove Mr. Kubiniec from his vice-chair position. He was immediately replaced by Mr. Kelly, who has vigorously and frequently defended maintaining all current board policies unchanged.
However, the question of censuring Mr. Kubiniec was tabled, and following an unscheduled closed-session meeting of the board, censure will apparently be decided upon at a later date.
During the public speaking portion of the meeting, numerous citizens held signs and spoke passionately in support of Mr. Kubiniec, many citing his efforts to promote the celebration of constitution day in the schools by recruiting and coordinating many volunteers to assist the teachers.
Although chairman Howell successfully persuaded a majority of board members to vote against Mr. Kubiniec to teach him a good lesson, however, from a debating standpoint, Kubiniec absolutely outwitted Howell during his defense remarks by tearing down his twisted or exaggerated accusations.
Clearly, creative ideas and free speech at Iredell school board meetings are absolutely unwelcome by chairman Howell.
The whole sordid display of battling personalities absolutely diminished the public image of the school board, tarnishing it beyond repair. It will remain tarnished until the school board leadership is changed.
Oh look! It’s Paula!
It is very clear that the mobs for liberty & their members that serve on this board have one goal : to create chaos & hurt the school system. Why do Kubiniec & Kurn want to serve on the public school board? When He doesn’t have children in our system & never did, and she has her kids in private school? This should throw up some serious red flags. Both are using these positions to further their political aspirations & are not serving the best interests of our children. It is obvious they take their marching orders from convicted drug offender Micah Phelps. And why is he so concerned with the school system 🧐?
Just so we are clear: Kubiniec only recruited some volunteers for Constitution Day. That is all. The day is acknowledged and celebrated as well as activities planned in the curriculums for each I-SS school. Kubinec had nothing to do with the day being recognized, nor activities for the day. Supporters of Kubiniec, get your facts straight!
I watched the meeting from Monday night & have to say I am appalled at the things done to staff & behavior of Mike Kubiniec during the meeting. I also noticed while watching the meeting that Ms Thunderdome was constantly looking at Kubiniec’s notes & the lawyer’s notes. Watch her eyes. Does she need to cheat at board meetings to know what to say?
Looks that way to me. We need competent board members!
You are absolutely right! I noticed the same thing. It’s apparent that she’s not too bright.
This is supposed to be America, not the land of Stalinist show trials. The Constitution, which all school board members swore to uphold, mandates that everyone be given due process. Love Captain K or hate him, no one can claim that’s what he received.
What goes around comes around. You who applaud what happened to him will howl like stuck pigs when it happens to you. And you foolishly encourage its likelihood when you cheerlead the kangaroo court.
Like what you are doing?