Regular Dayton School Board halted after disruption

DAYTON—The Dayton School Board met Wednesday, September 15, for a regular school board meeting. Business items on the agenda included a review of multiple out-of-endorsement teachers, consideration for substitute teachers’ payment raise, and adopting a new social studies/history curriculum.

The meeting was halted after the consent agenda was approved and the public comment portion of the meeting began. School board candidate Aneesha Dieu spoke during this portion of the meeting, but comments were stopped after board members noticed that Dieu and other crowd members were not wearing face masks. Under Proclamation 20-28.14, updated on June 2, 2021, agencies may only allow in-person attendance to meetings if all attendees can comply with masking requirements. The proclamation states that “If at any time during a public meeting the in-person component cannot comply with each of the requirements herein, the public meeting (to include the telephonic/remote access portions) must be recessed until compliance is restored or if compliance cannot be restored then adjourned, continued, or otherwise terminated.”

School board officials recessed the meeting in compliance with the proclamation and stated that only attendees wearing a mask may re-enter the meeting room. Dieu refused to put on a face mask and refused to leave the campus. Because the board could not gain full compliance, they were unable to reconvene and were forced to adjourn the meeting. The Columbia County Sheriff’s Office was contacted; however, deputies did not respond.

After the meeting was forced to adjourn, some in attendance heard Dieu say that students would be better protected against COVID-19 and its effects if they were infected with the virus, given that they would recover.

In an interview with The Times, Baily said, “Nobody gets ahead when you are unable to have the meeting, if people do not behave, do not act civilly, and do not allow business to go forward, it hurts everybody. For that reason, for the foreseeable future, we will just have Zoom meetings. I know people want face-to-face meetings, but if we cannot conduct meetings, we have to do something else.”

Dieu is running against Anna G. Berg, for Seat #4, in the upcoming General Election.

Dayton School Board Chairman David Bailey said that New and Old Business agenda items from this meeting would be moved to the October 20 meeting.