Officially, the four-minute confrontation between the Oconee County Board of Education and the co-publishers of The Oconee Enterprise at the Board meeting on Aug. 12 didn’t happen.
At its meeting on last Monday, the Board approved minutes of that meeting that made no mention of the conflict, which resulted in Amanda and Michael Prochaska being escorted out of the room by school administrators and sheriff deputies.
The live streaming of the meeting included the beginning of the appeal by the Prochaskas for the opportunity to speak before someone cut the video feed. The audio continued for a bit after the video stopped.
But those video and audio clips were edited out of the official video that is on the Oconee County Schools YouTube channel.
And Oconee County Schools Communications Director Steven Colquitt said, in response to an open records request, that the original, unedited video and audio clips no longer exit.
Board Chair Kim Argo, who refused to allow the Prochaskas to speak, says she doesn’t know who made the decision to stop the live stream feed, referring the question to Superintendent Jason Branch.
Rather than answer, Branch referred the question to Colquitt, who refused to provide an answer.
Beginning Of Problem
The confrontation between the Prochaskas and the Board on Aug. 12 had its origins in the Board meeting on Aug. 5.
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| Screen Shot Meeting 8/12/2024 Colquitt At Podium Shot From Camera At Front Of Room Before Edit 1:31:52 In Video |
In his report at that meeting, Superintendent Branch told the Board it needed to redo two of its tax hearings because of “a technical reporting discrepancy regarding our July 1 millage hearings.”
In fact, the Georgia Department of Revenue had informed Oconee County Tax Commissioner Jennifer Riddle in an email message on Aug. 2 that was copied to Oconee County Schools Chief Finance Officer Peter Adams that the advertisement for the July 1 tax hearing violated state law.
By law, the hearing could not be held until seven days after it was advertised in the county’s legal organ, The Oconee Enterprise. The July 1 tax hearing was four days after it was first advertised in the Enterprise on June 27.
At the Aug. 12 meeting, Adams told the Board that he had learned that day that an advertisement Oconee County Schools had placed in the Aug. 8 edition of the Enterprise for a redo of the July 1 tax hearings on Aug. 16 also had been rejected by the Department of Revenue.
Adams said “we reached out to The Oconee Enterprise to inquire about our ad and were informed that an employee of The Oconee Enterprise changed the ad size after the proof was approved by the publisher Michael Prochaska.”
In response to a question from Board Member Tim Burgess, Adams said the paper had been informed of the required size of the advertisement.
“Did you get any apology from the paper for them being unable to follow that simple instruction?” Burgess then asked.
“No sir,” Adams said. “No we did not.”
What Happened Next
Both Amanda and Michael Prochaska left their nearby office, where they had been watching the meeting on livestream, and appeared at the Board of Education meeting as the Public Comment section was ending.
When they asked to speak, Chair Argo told them they were out of order. She also told them they were not allowed to speak because they do not live in Oconee County.
I did not attend the meeting, but it is clear from an audio recording of this section of the meeting that someone gave to me that the Prochaskas became disruptive when they were not allowed to speak and refused to leave the podium.
“You are allowing lies to be perpetuated in this room without allowing us to speak to those lies,” Amanda Prochaska can be heard saying on the audio recording.
“There was a small technical mistake that was an honest mistake,” Michael Prochaska said. “A graphic design mistake. No, we will not leave. And we apologized when a school representative. No we will not leave. We will not leave. We will defend our First Amendment rights.”
The two were escorted out of the room by school officials and sheriff deputies, according to a picture published in the Aug. 15 edition of the paper.
Amanda Prochaska subsequently gave me copies of correspondence between her and Oconee County Schools Communications Director Steven Colquitt in which she did apologize for the error.
Amanda Prochaska said she, not Michael Prochaska, had proofed the ad before it was mistakenly reduced in size since she is in charge of the advertising section of the paper. Michael Prochaska is the editor of the paper and in charge of the editorial content.
Livestream, Video And Minutes
At some point shortly after the Prochaskas approached the podium, someone cut the video livestream of the meeting.
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| Screen Shot Meeting 8/12/2024 Shot From Camera At Rear Of Room After Edit 1:31:59 In Video |
Someone cut the audio shortly after that.
The video and audio were restored in the livestream after the Prochaskas were escorted from the room.
The video of the meeting, uploaded to the Oconee County Schools YouTube Channel a few days after the meeting, contains a noticeable edit at 1:31:59 in the video.
The edit removed that part of the video and audio that had been livestreamed before the livestream was cut.
The minutes adopted by the Board on Monday, which had been available online a few days after the Aug. 12 meeting, contained this description of what happened:
“Mr. Adams also provided an update on the OCS Millage Rate. He explained that after she had contacted the Georgia Department of Revenue, Tax Commissioner Jennifer Riddle notified OCS that the ad for the August 16 hearings, published in The Oconee Enterprise, the county's legal organ, was not compliant with the GA code of 30 square inches. Mr. Adams said that OCS reached out to The Oconee Enterprise about the ad size and was informed that an Oconee Enterprise employee had changed the size of the ad after the proof was approved by Michael Prohaska (Editor).” (The correct spelling is Prochaska.)
The minutes also state that “Board members asked pertinent questions regarding the Business Services report. Mr. Adams answered those questions.”
Open Records Request
The uploaded video of the meeting show that two different cameras were used to record the meeting. One is of the Board shot from the rear of the room, and the other is of the podium, shot from the front of the room.
A room separate from the Board room contains a bank of three screens where those in charge of the video sit and watch what is being recorded by the video in the cameras in the meeting room.
The two cameras that clearly were in use on Aug. 12 should have given a full view of what took place at the podium as the Prochaskas tried to speak as well as what was happening at the front of the room where the Board and Superintendent Branch were sitting.
The audio provides me indicates that about four minutes are missing from the video on the Oconee County Schools YouTube channel.
I filed an open records request with Communications Director Colquitt on Aug. 15 asking for “all unedited, original video recordings and all unedited, original audio recordings made by Oconee County Schools of the Board of Education meeting of Aug. 12, 2024.”
“This request covers all cameras used by OCS staff in the Board meeting room as well as any audio or video recordings you or Dr. Jason Branch made of any part of that meeting via your mobile phones or any other device.”
“It also includes those parts of the video from the meeting you did not include in the version of the video you released to the public,” I wrote. “Those parts may exist in trash files but are covered by this request as well.”
Colquitt, who is the open records officer for Oconee County Schools, wrote back on Aug. 20, saying “There are no records responsive to your request.”
Second Request
On Aug. 27, I wrote to Board Chair Argo, saying “I am still trying to understand what happened at the Aug. 12 BOE meeting.”
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| Video Control Room (With Window) Shot At Break In Meeting 9/9/2024 |
“The video livestreaming stopped shortly after Michael and Amanda Prochaska approached the podium, and the audio livestreaming stopped shortly after that.”
“Can you explain to me who interrupted this livestreaming, first of the video and then of both the video and audio?” I asked.
“Who made the decision to begin livestreaming again once the Prochaskas were removed from the room?” I asked.
Argo wrote back later that day, saying “I don’t know the answer. I am including Dr. Branch on this email, so he can direct it to the person that can correctly answer your question.”
On Aug. 29, Branch wrote, saying “Steve Colquitt, director of communications, manages all communication for the school system. I have copied him on this correspondence so that he can assist as appropriate.”
Response From Colquitt
At the end of the day on the 29th, Colquitt wrote: “The simultaneous broadcast and archived video are provided as a courtesy, in conjunction with the legally required minutes, to accurately document the business of the Board of Education and its meetings.”
“Disruptions and distractions not germane to the proceedings will be excluded from both versions,” he continued.
I wrote back later that day and told Colquitt his “comments are not responsive to the questions I asked of Ms. Argo. I am pasting those questions below from the bottom of the email chain. I look forward to your responses to these questions.”
Colquitt has not responded to that email.
4 comments:
If you want to call our attempt, as publishers of the community newspaper, to correct misinformation and defend ourselves a "disruption and distraction," that's fine. But I strongly believe that "disruptions and distractions" during a government meeting are still part of the public record and should be documented as such. It's undemocratic for a government to make a subjective decision on what to include or exclude from an open meeting. At the end of the day, government only exists is serve the people, even those who are deemed "disruptors" and "distractions."
And I think most people would agree with this sentiment.
-Michael Prochaska, editor.
Brazen: endure an embarrassing or difficult situation by behaving with apparent confidence and lack of shame.
This "as usual" lack of transparency is not unexpected. And in so many peoples minds accepted. However, we have now entered into just down right lying. The entire BOE needs to be replaced. But replaced with members who will not simply be a rubber stamp of Dr. Branch and his staff. Right now we, as voters, only have two opportunities to replace current BOE members. Personally, I see Green and Hammond as our first good chance to bring transparency and honesty to the BOE. DO NOT vote your party. Vote for the best candidates. I am a Democrat but I am voting for Hammond. I am voting for Green because she will be the only educator on the BOE. Not to mention she is a great candidate who will not put up with the statusquo of the current and past boards. Our schools are the best. They are the best because we are an educated and fairly wealthy County. That means..because of wealth and an educated population..parents are engaged. The kids are encouraged to succeed
I am sorry but I did not finish. Our schools are great too because our teachers are great. And many principals and administrative staff are great. I think the individual school administrators could be even greater and do a better job if only they were not concerned about "punishment" from the county office. Let our teachers teach. Stop playing politics with our kids.
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