‘It’s become a joke;’ Tipp City School Board meeting canceled after board members don’t show up

TIPP CITY, Miami County — The Tipp City School Board was supposed to hold a special meeting on Tuesday evening but got canceled.

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It was scheduled for 5 p.m. Tuesday but did not happen because two board members did not show up.

The new board president and vice president showed up, but Anne Zakkour and Theresa Dunaway did not.

It is unknown when the next meeting will happen, despite being rescheduled to occur on Tuesday.

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The meeting was originally scheduled for Monday, Sept. 25, but it was moved to Tuesday as both Zakkour and Dunaway said they couldn’t attend on Monday.

It has been three weeks since board member Zakkour did a Nazi salute during a meeting directed toward the former board president.

The former board president resigned that same evening, but it was because he no longer lives in the district.

Tipp City resident and grandparent of children who attend the schools, Marcy Thomas, went to the meeting tonight to find out that it was canceled without an explanation.

“There’s no meeting, but there is no information on the door telling us why there is no meeting,” Thomas said.

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When News Center 7′s Brandon Lewis told her the meeting was canceled due to two board members not showing up, she couldn’t believe it.

“If you do not care enough about your district to show up to the meetings, then you need to step down and be replaced, and I feel very strongly at this point that Mrs. Zakkour needs to step down and be replaced,” Thomas said.

Thomas doesn’t believe the district is being represented in the right way. School systems are supposed to teach children positive messages, but instead what is going on here isn’t “responsible or respectable.”

“It’s become a joke, and I don’t have time to come and sit through a joke of a meeting if you’re just going to banter back and forth and not talk to each other like adults. I think at this point, Tipp City Schools would benefit from an all-new board that actually wants to work together like grown-ups and make this an environment that’s positive for our kids,” Thomas said.

Dunaway sent News Center 7 a statement saying she did not feel “comfortable” participating in the meeting:

“Amber Drum knew there wouldn’t be a quorum for tonight’s meeting, what a sad state of affairs to pull a stunt like this. School boards should strive to maintain compliance with all applicable laws. We did not meet the requirements of R.C. 3313.11, so we can’t appoint Simon’s replacement, we missed the window.

R.C. 3313.11 requires that a board fill a vacancy at the NEXT regular board meeting (Sept 25) or special meeting (Sept 22) that is 10 days after the date of the vacancy. If there is no action within 30 days, the probate court must appoint someone. This fact does not mean the board is relieved of its duty to fill the vacancy as required by law

My suggestion to the Board was that we try to submit some agreed-upon applicants to the probate court since we missed the window. We did have 11 community members apply for the vacant seat.

There is no real penalty for violating the statute until the decision exceeds 30 days. In my opinion, it’s still a statutory violation and I wasn’t comfortable participating in tonight’s meeting.”

News Center 7 called Zakkour for a statement as well as visited her home with no answer.

When asked about Zakkour’s action in the school board’s last meeting Drum said she wants to “move forward.”

Drum said the board is talking with a probate court to see how they can move forward with filling the position.

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