Attempt to oust Richland School Board president over COVID mask rule ‘nitpicking’ fails
An attempt to oust Richland School Board president Jill Oldson failed 3-2 during Tuesday night’s virtual meeting.
Board member Audra Byrd asked for an agenda item to be added to the meeting to discuss a change in leadership, and made a motion to promote board member Kari Williams to the top seat at the meeting.
The motion also would have made board member Semi Bird the vice president and Byrd as the legislative representative.
Board members Rick Jansons and Kari Williams joined Oldson in voting down the motion.
During the board’s nearly 45-minute discussion, Byrd said she wanted new leadership because she felt Oldson was being too divisive and was acting unilaterally on certain decisions, such as making Tuesday night’s meeting virtual rather than in person. She accused Oldson of abusing her power.
The board has been embroiled in controversy since last week’s vote to make face masks optional in defiance of state COVID rules. Jansons and Oldson voted against that change. The board later changed its vote, 4-1, to make masks optional once the statewide indoor mask mandate lifts on March 21.
Questions have been raised over the legality of how the board’s initial vote.
Both Bird and Byrd said their votes were not based in Oldson’s decision last week.
“The reasons I’m asking for change in board leadership is not because of little disagreements, or difference of opinions, or little mistakes. It’s because of those problems that I’ve seen,” Byrd said. “I also would really like to have a board president that can start and run board meetings without constant contention, and I feel like our last few board meetings in public have started out contentious because of how Jill has started them.”
Byrd specified her issues with Oldson, saying she nitpicks people who aren’t wearing their masks properly, and she accused Oldson of asking “people to come after board members.”
But Jansons, the board’s longtime president before this year, objected to the way Byrd approached a leadership change.
“This does not build any additional teamwork. In my opinion, it creates further division — both here and in the community,” he said.
Oldson, who was chosen by the board in November to be the president, said she felt last week’s vote was illegal and stood by her comments afterward telling the public they should hold the board responsible and not the school district.
“That’s where I draw my line. It was a legality issue. The district didn’t make that decision. We put Dr. (Shelley) Redinger and an entire staff in a situation that was a no-win situation,” Oldson said, adding that the Richland superintendent “single-handedly saved this district from a catastrophic opportunity” by deciding to close schools for two days.
As the deciding vote on the leadership change, Williams said the board had a long way to go in order to become functionable, and said Byrd could reintroduce changes to board leadership months down the line if she felt things weren’t working out.
“For now, we need to try to help each other be better,” Williams said.
The Richland School Board meets again at 4 p.m. Thursday via Zoom for a special workshop session on the topic, “Board norms.”
Gov. Inslee comments
Washington state’s indoor mask mandate is due to expire March 21, during which masks will likely become optional at Richland School District.
Gov. Jay Inslee during a Tuesday visit to the Tri Cities said he spoke to Redinger about the mask mishap and that “peace had been restored.”
“A few more weeks and people who do not want to wear masks will not be required to do so. People who do want to wear masks will be allowed to do so,” he said. “So we’re fairly close to something I don’t believe should cause further debate. And that will be a good thing.”
“And I want to compliment your superintendent for her leadership in this to help lead the community through some difficult discussions and get to a place where the kids can have school. That’s a happy day,” he continued.
This story was originally published February 23, 2022 at 12:58 PM.
