Watch the speech here starting at the 2:20 mark: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqWmrvDG8ws
Or read the full speech here:
Where is the Real Accountability?
3-minute speech read aloud at the September 15, 2026 Board Meeting:
We need to talk about what is really happening behind the scenes in this District.
For a while now, the blueprint has been right there in the record: the
Superintendent showing the Board how to evade public scrutiny by splintering off
into smaller groups and subquorums. And now, we see that exact playbook
rolling out in a brand new way.
Leadership very recently scheduled a new series of small, restricted meetings,
capped at just 15 people at a time. Let’s call that play out for exactly what it is.
I imagine the Superintendent’s defense for these tiny gatherings will be: "Look,
we’re keeping these groups down to 15 people so there's more time for
back-and-forth and folks are more comfortable asking questions."
That is not transparency and open dialogue—that is compartmentalization.
These conversations are supposed to be public proceedings, not private coffee
chats. Fragmenting the public into tiny, controlled silos behind closed doors is just
a way to divide and conquer. It means no public record, no universal access for
working parents and citizens who can't fit into their hand-picked schedule, and no
shared community reality.
If one single hearing on a superintendent's massive raise was "sufficient" in your
eyes (despite an employee letting you and the Administration know they
desperately wanted to attend and speak), why suddenly pivot to micro-meetings?
Is it because you want to dodge recorded public scrutiny and the possibility of a
united front from the public?
Think about how this District treats public input when it actually counts. Look at
how you handled the statutory hearing on the superintendent’s contract
raise—scheduling it during standard work hours when it is difficult for working
folks to attend, imposing financial penalties on your employees just to attend, and
refusing to let a proxy read a three-minute statement to make up for your
problematic scheduling.
And look at where we stand right now with the public's petition and formal
taxpayer objections. You haven't answered the basic questions: When will you
publish your legally required responses to the taxpayers' objections? How do you
plan to widely advertise those findings to the public? It seems you are
stonewalling to run out the clock before your final vote for YOUR 2027 budget.
That is why I am challenging the District to hold a TRUE open forum.
A real open forum isn't a collection of closed-door coffee chats capped at 15
people or a board meeting allowing the public 3-minute monologues with no
back-and-forth from Board members. A true open forum means a live,
transparent, back-and-forth exchange where public officials answer to the
entire community in the light of day at a time when the majority of the public can
more easily attend. And with everything recorded and made easily available to
all with video on YouTube, just like any other Board Meeting.
Step into the light and SERVE the public rather than prioritizing your own salary
surges and a multi-million-dollar stadium while claiming financial duress to the
frontline—and simultaneously manufacturing a crisis that leaves our community
to fund a referendum by 2030 or face painful and severe school cuts for our
children.
So the clock is ticking: Tick-tock. Tick-tock.
When and where will you publish the legally required responses to the taxpayers'
objections? How will you advertise them? When will you step out and into a real,
live open forum available to an undivided public to answer the community you
are supposed to serve? Stop hiding behind micro-meetings. Stop dodging your
legal obligations. Do your work transparently with an undivided public.
Thank you.
I’m submitting this speech along with supporting documentation to be added
directly as-is to the official minutes for tonight's meeting. Show you dare to face
the public’s objections publicly.
Submitted and read by: Kimber Beachy, Goshen Taxpayer
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