ROARING SPRING — Parental concerns regarding district policy and procedures were the focus of Monday evening’s Spring Cove School Board meeting, which culminated in one board member calling for the resignation of Superintendent Betsy Baker.

Spring Cove Middle School student Kenly Bennett addressed the board with her parents, Kara and Edward Bennett.

She detailed an incident on Dec. 7, when Baker and Assistant Principal Holly Boyles pulled her from class to question her about an email that she had received from Kevin Smith, who was not a school board member at the time. Smith was sworn in as a board member on Dec. 4 after winning a five-year term during November’s elections.

Kenly said that Baker got the email from a post she had put on Facebook and asked her if she felt uncomfortable, violated, threatened by it or if her parents knew about it.

“She made me feel as if she wanted me to say that Mr. Smith was trying to do something else,” Kenly said. “After I answered all of her questions, she said that I was not to use my school Chromebook for (Young Entrepreneurs Academy) purposes, but I had used a Chromebook my parents had bought.”

YEA is a program offered through the Blair County Chamber of Commerce that is designed to help students between 11 and 18 years old start and run their own business, or nonprofit organization, according to the chamber website.

Kenly’s mom, Kara Bennett, further explained the situation to the Mirror, saying that the email Smith sent “was congratulating her,” as she is only the second student from Spring Cove who has been accepted into the program, and “sharing his story on how he retired early and started his own small business.”

“Her father and I were both aware of this email,” Bennett said. “She showed us right away with excitement.”

She said that they are upset because they didn’t know about the questioning, that they should have been there for it, that their daughter felt belittled and that “this matter could have been settled by a simple call asking me or my husband if we knew about the email in question.”

During the meeting, Kara Bennett called for an immediate investigation into Baker’s conduct. Smith then requested the opportunity to respond, which Wright granted.

Smith questioned why he wasn’t asked about the email and alleged that Baker was looking for something to harm his reputation. He said that he had been “hearing so much over the last few years” about Baker’s behavior.

“I was going to ask for your resignation,” Smith said to Baker. “But I’m going to ask that we call an executive session, we sit down and we discuss the behavior that’s going on in the school and we give (Baker) an opportunity to either see it or not. But if it doesn’t change, I’m going to take action.”

Smith’s request was granted following the public comment portion of the meeting, as the board recessed for about a half hour for an executive session. No further action was taken upon their return. Baker declined a request to comment on the situation following the meeting.

Sports transportation

In a separate matter, mothers of district students Dana Horn, Jennifer Mowery and Bobbie Clapper also spoke during public comment to request a proposal be made that would allow parents to drive their athletes to tournaments during inclement weather.

Horn said they each had a son participating in a two-day wrestling tournament that began on Friday, Jan. 5, at the Laurel Highlands Athletic Conference. She explained that, although all of their sons had made it to the “blood round” — or top eight wrestlers — and advanced to the second day of the tournament, their coach informed them Saturday morning that they weren’t allowed to participate.

“We were pulled from the wrestling tournament,” Horn said. “We were told that we as parents were not allowed to transport our children if we signed a waiver. We were told that the coach asked if he could transport our students, our children, and we were not allowed to do that either.”

She said that Spring Cove and Hollidaysburg school districts “were the only two teams out of the conference that were pulled from the competition” due to the poor weather.

“Our kids would have received some kind of recognition for the tournament,” Horn said. “However, they couldn’t. They also got a loss on their record.”

The loss, Horn said, would affect their district seeding later in the season.

Horn then questioned why parents couldn’t be allowed to sign something to accept liability in those situations when they can sign papers to take their children home from wrestling matches.

“Why aren’t we all liable to take them to a tournament so that they can compete?” Horn asked.

Baker said that the district was already in contact with the LHC, District 6 and PIAA.

“We are trying to appeal the loss because it is a very upsetting situation,” Baker said.

Board President Troy Wright said that they would explore what they could do legally and policy-wise, as well as try to figure out “how this happened.”

“We’re not going to blame people,” Wright said. “We’re going to figure out what happened and fix it.”

Mirror Staff Writer Rachel Foor is at 814-946-7458.