28 February 2023
NEWTON, Kan. (KSNW) — It was standing-room only at the McKinley Administrative Center in Newton as more than a hundred people gathered at Monday’s USD 373 school board meeting. Many addressed concerns about what they felt was a sudden change to the student code of conduct.
Many said last week’s change was to help a student-athlete caught vaping be eligible for the state wrestling championships this past weekend. However, the father of the athlete said that had the video of his son vaping been shown to administration immediately after it happened, his son would still have been disciplined and would have been in good standing for regionals and the state championship.
Andrew Buchanan says the alleged incident of his son vaping took place weeks prior to when it was reported and told the board and the packed room this was a “calculated attack” against his son by his son’s ex-girlfriend and her mother.
“I argued that this video was sat on for a month and then reported only at the perfect time to cause the most harm to my son,” Buchanan said. “This individual and her mother plotted to use the school’s administrators to carry out this plan.”
Board Member Matt Treaster tells KSN News that USD 373 administrators have made exceptions in the past for other unrelated student matters. He says he also feels the timing of this most recent incident was meant to inflict harm on the student-athlete involved.
“The individual who reported it to the district held onto this information for weeks and then dropped it on the administration the Tuesday before the state tournament,” Treaster said. “Because of that, their intent was harm.”
Treaster says last week’s vote was to put the administration’s ability to make exceptions to the student code of conduct in writing. However, not every board member agreed with the decision to have a vote on the policy last week.
Board Member Brenna Haines left last week’s meeting before the vote was cast. She says she has filed a complaint with the Kansas Attorney General’s Office citing a potential Kansas Open Meetings Act violation since only four of the seven board members signed the required waiver for the meeting to take place.
“The way the wording of the policy is, it says notice of two days, at least two days, will be given to each board member unless waived, and so the actual wording in the policy is to each board member. It doesn’t say anywhere in that paragraph about it being four,” Haines said.
Haines says she’s also in the process of filing a local complaint against the board. She thinks it could be the first time in Newton Public Schools history a board member has ever filed a complaint against the board itself.