Board member walks out

Ortiz says he feels 'invalued' by scheduling decision

A Lawrence school board member walked out during the middle of Monday’s board meeting, claiming he wasn’t being treated fairly by district staff and fellow board members.

Leonard Ortiz’s early departure came in protest of the scheduling of a board study session that had been planned for today. He said the 4:30 p.m. meeting had been scheduled around board member Sue Morgan’s availability, even though he couldn’t attend.

“If you don’t feel I’m needed tomorrow, then I don’t feel like I’m needed here tonight,” Ortiz said before closing his notebook and walking out of the meeting.

Morgan, who was absent Monday, was available for only a handful of days in November for the session. Ortiz wanted the board to meet later in the evening, but Supt. Randy Weseman said that wouldn’t be possible because the Kansas Open Meetings Act required the district to announce public meetings 48 hours in advance.

“One of my jobs is to make sure this board works together, and that board relations are at a high level of efficiency,” Weseman said after Ortiz left. “I think you should be sensitive to him. If it were up to me, I say let us find another time that could accommodate seven board members.”

After discussion, the board decided to cancel today’s study session, which had been planned to discuss school boundaries and a proposed bond issue for facility improvements. The meeting will be rescheduled later in the month.

“It’s fairly unprecedented when the whole board can ever attend a study session,” board member Linda Robinson said. “It’s not unusual to have a study session when the whole board isn’t present. That being said, I think we’re all willing to work with the situation.”

Reached by phone after the meeting, Ortiz said he thought he needed to make a statement about the scheduling issue.

“It seemed it was more important for Sue Morgan to be there than for me to be there,” he said. “I just felt invalued.”