Emails Show Householder Lied When Removing Agenda Item from Antioch School Board Meeting

During Wednesdays Antioch School Board Meeting, Board President Ellie Householder apparently lied to the public in her explanation of why she was removing an Agenda Item that would have discussed her removal as Board President.

Householder stated the following:

“I am going to be pulling item 10E from our Discussions per Board Policy 9332, the Board President and Superintendent, as the secretary of the board shall work together to develop the agenda for each regulars/special meeting. Each agenda shall reflect the Districts vision and goals and the boards focus on student learning,” stated Householder.

“Last Wednesday, which I believe was September 1, we did not discuss this item and we have these processes for a reason. We need to adhere to them. Item 10E was placed on the agenda without being discussed and I am puling it for tonight,” stated Householder. Full recap here

Superintendent Stephanie Anello immediately objected while attempting to call point of order which at that point Householder cut off Anello from any more conversation–the District had more than 60-pages of Public Comments on the item.

In a Public Records Request seeking a copy of the draft agenda and final agenda, the versions show Item 10E (Removal of Board President) was on the draft agenda which was approved by Householder.

The draft email, sent on Sept. 1 at 11:45 am included Board President (Householder), Vice President (Clyde Lewis), along with the Superintendent (Stephanie Anello) and Deputy Superintendent (Jessica Romeo) for review of both the Special Board meeting on Sept. 2 and the Regular Board Meeting on Sept. 8.

They subsequently held a WebX meeting to discuss the agendas which shows Householder was on the call for 39 minutes and Lewis was on the call for 12-minutes on his cell phone before rejoining for 33-minutes on a computer.

In the draft version under Section 10, it showed Items 10A-10E (a total of 5 items), after the review of the agenda and the WebX, Householder then requested 3-additonal items being placed on the agenda which included Item 10F, Item 10G and Item 10H. These three items were placed on the final agenda.

A Board President will have an advanced copy of the final agenda and then has 48-hours to review it before it goes out to the public. Once the meeting is made public, the Board President/Staff/Board Member can request a revised Agenda if needed—no revision was requested.

Householder waited until the night of the meeting to pull the agenda item.

On Thursday, Trustee Clyde Lewis again confirmed Trustee Mary Rocha reached out to him before the Special Board meeting with her request to place the removal of Householder on the agenda noting he was aware it would be on the Sept. 8 meeting agenda.

When asked why he did not correct the Board President after she made her comments on Wednesday, Lewis sidestepped the question while explaining he understood people are upset.

“Do I agree with what Ellie did? No,” said Lewis. “Do I think we need a secondary conversation. I think that would be healthy. But removing someone based on a singular action, that gives me pause. I look forward to discussing this at a future meeting,”.

Lewis said Rocha’s request to remove Householder as Board President will be discussed at a future meeting.

On Thursday, Rocha says she plans to go forward with the item at the Sept. 22 meeting.

“I put it back on the agenda for a the September 22^nd meeting at this point, I am upset enough with her, her attitude and ho how she acts as the chair and I feel we need to review this discussion again,” said Rocha who explained she doesn’t follow the rules of order or allow others to speak or answer questions. “To me, that is not the way to work as a chair.”