School board locked out of board room

If the Burke County school board members try to have another meeting in the Central Office board room, their keys won't work and they'll find the front door chained and padlocked.
School Superintendent David Burleson received a hand-delivered letter from County Manager Ron Lewis shortly before 2 p.m. Wednesday. It said the school board cannot have any more meetings at Central Office "until further notice."
Three hours later, School Board Chair Tracy Norman called an emergency meeting for 7 p.m. in the Central Office board room. Its stated purpose was "to discuss the meeting location for Monday night's meeting as well as to receive legal advice."
When the school board convened, it faced an over-flow crowd of about 135 people — exactly the situation that Lewis said prompted him to order the school board to stop using the board room whose maximum occupancy is 85.
Norman ordered Burleson to conduct a count and see that the excess people were cleared out.
The board immediately went into closed session with school district attorney Jon Jones.
With encouragement from community organizer Bruce Ervin — and with the voluntary cooperation of about 17 young people who gave up their seats to adults — the room emptied, though several dozen remained outside the building.
The board's closed session ended dramatically in about 40 minutes.
Jones said two unnamed board members literally were screaming at each other.
A few moments later, board member Buddy Armour walked through the still-crowded board room and announced he was leaving.
"The board has no quorum," he declared.
Only Norman, Tim Buff and Karen Sain remained. Sam Wilkinson and Rob Hairfield did not attend the meeting.
Norman emerged a few minutes after Armour left and emotionally declared, "There will be quorum. It will be tonight. We will conduct the business of the board."
Buff left soon afterwards, passing through the crowd outside the building without comment.
Norman and Sain left through another exit.
The building immediately was cleared and closed for the night, except to admit the technician from Ed's Locksmith who began changing the board-room locks.
Jones said he did not believe the meeting would resume, though he admitted there was a parliamentary question about how the board could adjourn without a quorum to vote on the question.
As he left, Armour said he concluded there was no justification for calling an emergency meeting. He declined to reveal what the board discussed in the closed session, but said he felt the discussion was headed away from the stated purpose to decide where the board would have its next meeting.
North Carolina's Open Meetings Law permits boards to convene emergency sessions on short notice, but the law also requires all discussion to be pertinent to the meeting's stated purpose.
The board needs to give 48 hours' notice of the time and and place for its regular meetings. There is a meeting tentatively scheduled for 5:15 p.m. Monday.
Ruth Ann Suttle, chairman of the Burke County Board of Commissioners, who attended the school board meeting, said afterward that she and fellow commissioners and the county manager would meet today to discuss the school board's decision to meet despite the county manager's order.
In his letter — which also was sent to all the school board members — Lewis said the county government, which owns the building at 700 E. Parker Road, has received "numerous complaints from citizens and customers regarding accessibility to the building" when the school board is in session.
"Based on information we have received from the City of Morganton's chief of public safety, fire inspector and building inspector," Lewis wrote, "we deem the Human Resource Center building on Parker Road to be inappropriate for school board meetings due to the large crowds and the inability to provide for the safety and security of all involved."
On that basis, Lewis wrote, "All future school board meetings will not be allowed on the premises until further notice....
"Rest assured that this action is being taken for the sole purpose of insuring as best we can the health and well-being of the Burke County Board of Education, its staff and the general public."
In addition to the Burke County Public Schools' administrative offices, the building houses the Burke County Health Department and Department of Social Services. More than 200 people work at the two county offices.
The building's parking lots together can hold about 300 vehicles.
Clients have trouble getting in, especially during the early-afternoon school board meetings, and employees have difficulty, too, Lewis said in a separate interview.
Approximately 210 people attended the school board's 1 p.m. special called meeting on May 26. Other meetings in May also attracted overflow crowds to the Central Office site and hundreds — estimates range as high as 2,400 — attended the May 4 meeting at Patton High School.
It's believed the school district and county government have shared the building since the 1970s. The school board and the county board of commissioners both used the board room until the county moved to its own downtown Morganton facility. The county still owns the building.