Critics, supporters of charter school principal clash at meeting
Mr. Weaver said he’s going to ask the state to investigate the board “and its failure to follow the open meetings law and respond to taxpayers’ concerns.”
When the board appeared ready to move on, one woman complained. “So the Spanish-speaking community doesn’t get to hear what he said?” she asked.
The translator then read Mr. Weaver’s letter aloud in Spanish.
“Not everyone wants to listen,” said another woman, who appeared to support Mr. Ankrum. “It’s not fair to us who do speak English and can understand what’s being said.”
“They need to be informed what’s going on, too,” someone said.
“They can step outside in the hallways or be translated to after the meeting is over,” the woman shot back. “It’s not my fault you can’t understand English.”
At that point, people began shouting back and forth at each other in English and Spanish.
“Order in the room!” board member Susan Heintz shouted. “Otherwise, we’re clearing the room.”
“I understand the concerns in the room, but we have a big Spanish population here today that needs to understand what’s going on,” Ms. Hartfield said. She added that the board would provide a verbatim Spanish translation of Mr. Weaver’s letter to anyone who wanted it after the meeting.
Speaking through the translator, Nolby Menjibar said some parents are considering taking their children out of the school until the “problem is fixed.”
When Mary Ellen Weaver began speaking about a court document she claimed showed that Mr. Ankrum owed child support for 2012, the room exploded.
“Earlier I made a statement about [speakers] not making unfounded allegations,” Ms. Hartfield said.
“It’s not unfounded,” Ms. Weaver said.
“Is this the correct forum for that?” said the woman who didn’t want Mr. Weaver’s letter to be read in Spanish. “No! No! No! His personal business has no place in here. Let’s talk about the school. This is about the school. Who cares what goes on in his personal life?”
As audience members continued to yell back and forth, board member Harry Histand said, “We’re going to move into executive session because there is no control here.”
The public was then asked to leave the room.
When asked via email about the allegation that he owed child support for 2012, Mr. Ankrum responded: “How does [that] have anything to do with my job at Riverhead Charter School? That’s not an allegation, that’s defamation of character.”
He later added that he had tried to “take the high road” in the face of incessant, false allegations.
“There has been a massive effort by former employees, masking themselves as tax paying citizens to ultimately get the school shut down and/or cause major disruption by spreading unsubstantiated truths negligently hiding behind the 1st Amendment,” he said. “The next steps for me are to retain the rights of an attorney, and start suing any individual that attempts to defame my character. It’s sad that so much time has to be spent on this.”
