Miller Skips Out of School Board Meeting

Nazareth school board member Chris Miller ruffled feathers Monday night with two actions—one he did for certain and another that he is reported to have done.

The action Miller did for certain was leaving the school board meeting unannounced after the first part of the meeting when the board and audience went to the nearby gym to watch presentations by the high school chorus, the indoor color guard and the dance team.

The board returned to the board room to resume the meeting but Miller—who expressed disgust over sex assault allegations against the middle school drama teacher—was not there.

Board member Darrell Crook called Miller’s disappearance “an insult” to the board “and our kids.”

The second action, described by board president Lorin Bradley after he talked to other people, was to apparently confront a second-grade teacher in the hallway after she led a presentation on her class’ study of famous people.

The class produced videos of students portraying historical figures such as Abraham Lincoln, the Wright Brothers and Shirley Temple.

Two of the students—Mallory Woodland and Mikayla Boyce—attended the meeting in their costumes and gave presentations. Woodland portrayed Underground Railroad leader Harriet Tubman and Boyce portrayed Elvis Presley.

The history project is tied to the state’s new Common Core standards on what students are expected to know at each grade level. Those standards include teaching students to make presentations using multimedia components.

Last week, the board honored two groups of students from the intermediate school that won first-place honors in a digital book report contest.

Bradley, who did not witness the incident involving Miller and teacher April Silimperi, said he was told that Miller confronted Silimperi and criticized her for using taxpayers money on the famous people project, also referred to on the board's meeting agenda as the second-grade “wax museum.”

Bradley said Miller has previously expressed his opposition to the Common Core standards.

Patch called Miller’s home after Monday’s meeting. His wife answered and said Miller did not wish to speak about the issue at this time.

Bradley, clearly upset with Miller’s actions, said of Miller, “I don’t think he has the best interest of the district at heart” and that Miller’s actions “continued to alienate [him] from the rest of the board.”

Bradley also said he has no problem with listening to Miller’s views; he was not happy with the way he expressed them Monday night.

He said Miller should be expressing his views at open school board or board committee meetings.

He also said he was “disappointed” that Miller wasn’t present to hear statistics that Miller had asked superintendent Dennis Riker to gather about how much the district has spent on teacher training for Common Core.

Riker reported the district has spent $6,654.44 so far.

Bradley and board vice president Linda McDonald praised Silimperi and her history project.

After the meeting, McDonald said she was impressed with the way Silemperi described the message behind Common Core -- that “everyone has a backbone” but that does not mean everyone is the same.

McDonald also said that in her eight years on the Nazareth board, she has never witnessed a board member walk out on a meeting the way Miller did.