Community rancor over how taxpayer money is being spent as well as administrative actions continued Monday, prompting the Brooke County Board of Education to call for an investigation into “allegations levied against the superintendent,” Toni Paesano Shute.

Emerging from a near 60-minute closed door session, board members voted 5-0 to order the probe, citing concerns raised by Follansbee resident Deidra Parr earlier in the meeting.

In a lengthy statement she read to the board, Parr lamented “bullying and retaliatory treatment from officials within our educational system” and called for the board to “open an investigation into the previous board and administration.”

Parr contends someone in the Brooke County school system sent a series of nine emails to her employer, then tried to conceal their actions by purging them “so as to try and conceal the contents of the emails or hamper the possibility of having them recreated.” She maintains the author of the emails intended to infringe her right to free speech, interfere with her employment and “intimidate me into silence.” She did not, however, identify the author of the emails in her statement.

“With all the problems plaguing the Brooke County educational system, how is it that those tasked with making it better cannot make the necessary decisions for corrective action?” Parr said, saying the board “needs to take swift action to remedy the biggest issues first.”

“Remove the bullies in charge,” she urged. “If you don’t, we all know that this February’s levy will not pass and that will be completely on the shoulders of the senior leadership at our central board office and our elected board of education members. Are you really willing to watch (millions of dollars) go down the drain over inaction?”

Parr said attorneys with the West Virginia State Board of Education examined email records after the Brooke board’s legal counsel, an attorney from Bowles Rice, had denied anyone at the central office had access to them, adding that, “I’ve come to find … those emails could have been provided by the central office because they do have complete access to them.”

She also was critical of Bowles Rice providing legal advice to Shute, pointing out the firm’s legal obligation “is to the Brooke County Board of Education, which consists of five individuals, none of (whom) hold the title of superintendent.”

After the meeting Pauls declined comment on the investigation, saying only that it was the board’s responsibility to look into the allegations.

“Allegations were made, they have to be investigated,” board member Antoinette Perkins echoed. “We need to investigate (these) serious allegations, we have to go through the proper steps.”

The investigation overshadowed the board’s earlier decision to request a West Virginia Checkbook audit by state Auditor John B. McCuskey’s office, also a unanimous decision. West Virginia Checkbook allows taxpayers to see how their money is being spent.

Questioned about the audit, Pauls said it would “make things clearer.”

“I called for it, I think, two months ago,” he added. “There’s a lot of concern over how money is being spent.”

Taxpayer concerns over spending practices were fueled by the previous board’s decision to authorize pay raises totaling more than $143,00 for nearly a dozen of their staff members, particularly after the board cited financial difficulties as justification for closing three primary schools and eliminating 40 teaching and service personnel positions. Critics also insist there was no record of the raises being discussed or a vote being taken in a public meeting, suggesting a potential open meeting violation.

Only two current board members — Brian Ferguson and Perkins — served when the increases were approved last year. Several months ago Perkins told critics that when she voted for the raises, she didn’t realize they would be so high.

Board Vice President Stacy Hooper also aid she’d asked for but never received copies of board minutes reflecting discussion of the raises, with Shute commenting that discussions concerning the pay raises had been “informal.”

“Clearly the discussion was not made publicly,” Parr complained. “The public had no knowledge of the raises.”

Brooke County resident Lisa DiSerio told the board transparency is vital.

“I’ve talked to lots of people who will not vote for (the levy) because of the lack of transparency, we don’t know where our money is going,” DiSerio said, adding, “I don’t want to see family and friends lose jobs when their whole livelihood depends on that job when you guys got your cut of it. I don’t want to see attorneys telling board members not to answer questions, that is not transparency. Do you think what you tell us can be worse than what we think is going on? You’re wrong.”

DiSerio insists the general public wants action.

“I’ve talked to a lot of people who say this levy will not pass, our county will never recover and our school system will continue to break down without a change in leadership and climate,” she said. “It’s your job, it has to be done. You have to look at the leadership.”

Mary Beth Carpenter suggested the board commission a newsletter aimed at keeping residents in touch with what’s going on in county schools.

“The community lacks faith in our school system,” Carpenter said. “Something like (a newsletter), offered four or five times a year will let people know.”

Madison Buxton, a sophomore at Brooke High, complained about the “massive lack of progression in the county’s school system,” complaining in part that students are missing valuable learning time simply because there aren’t enough teachers. She also contends students would have been better served by enhancing their educations and adding teachers, rather than spending a lot of money to install a tech charging station/student lounge in the library.

Buxton called on the board to consider student concerns, among them providing a safer, temporary placement when teachers are not present; modifications to the new, “overwhelming” schedule; bathrooms that are fully functional; printing software for student Chromebooks; enforcing the bullying policy.

“Why is money being spent on unnecessary objects when we don’t have all the (tools) we need?” Buxton asked. “Why are the funds not going to schools in the county that need them.”

Later, Ferguson complained Hooper had violated freedom of information laws by disseminating information to only three of the five board members.

“That is an open meeting violation,” he alleged, though Hooper denied leaving two board members out of the e-mail chain.

“I forwarded (it) to all the board members,” Hooper insisted.

“Mrs. Hooper, it’s clearly printed out here that you did not,” Ferguson rejoined.

At Ferguson’s insistence, a handful of policy changes slated to be voted on Tuesday were tabled until the board determines there was no open meetings law violation.

Pauls, meanwhile, said the board is well aware the special levy election is just weeks away.

“It’s an ongoing concern of ours,” he said, adding, “I think the public understands what’s at risk.”

Perkins also said parents are undeniably upset about the lack of substitute teachers.

“We do our best, but we can’t make people come to work if they don’t want to,” she said.