Kiski School Board can’t agree to quit for the night
Say what you will about Kiski Area school board members, but no one can deny that they are a principled bunch.
With just seconds remaining at Monday’s school board meeting, members deadlocked over whether to adjourn for the night.
The vote was 4-4. Members Charlie Fox, Ron Ferrara, George Vagionis and Leroy Frederick wanted to end the meeting. The other four members wanted to have a closed meeting with an attorney about a Kiski Area case that’s before a Westmoreland County judge.
The four who wanted the closed meeting were Jim Summerville, Patrick Leyland, Debra Peppler and Joanne Retter.
Alas, if only member Ben Silvestri hadn’t been absent, he could have cast the tie-breaking vote.
Summerville explained why some members might have been reluctant to go into so-called “executive session.” He said certain board members have made calls from their cell phones from these meetings to reporters at local newspapers. This defeats the purpose of closed meetings.
At this, Leyland felt the need to defend himself, indicating that he only did it because he thought the state Sunshine Law was being violated.
Eventually, the board voted again and adjourned, leaving many to ponder the lost entertainment value of what could have been an endless night with the Kiski Area school board.