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CURTIS OSTRANDER	DUAINE HARDING
ELEANOR TODD	ELMER "BUD" HAHN
GERVASE KILEY	MARIAN SUTTON
ORLO KIRKUM	SLAVA KOKOTOVICH
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Resident asks RCS
board president to resign

Claims Sue Hier made slanderous,
defaming comments about her

by CHERYL CISKE
Observer Special Writer

      "First and foremost, we're school board members."
       That was the message Trustee Michael Stobak retorted following a Bruce Township resident's contention that board President Sue Hier allegedly made slanderous, defaming comments about her.
       In a printed statement read during the public comment portion of the Feb. 11 Romeo School Board meeting, Jeanne Lerchen asked Hier to resign her office as board president.
       Her request stemmed from a reported Jan. 30 inquiry made by Hier to WBRW Channel 6's station manager to find out why Lerchen was taping the board's Jan 28 meeting. In addition, Lerchen, who is a Channel 6 employee, maintained Hier also uttered slurs to her employer regarding her mental competency and why donations were not being made to the Foundation for Educational Excellence.
       "I see no other recourse than to ask Mrs. Hier to resign from the Romeo Community Schools Board of Education," Lerchen said. "I want you to know that I am prepared to take this as far as I must to hold Mrs. Hier accountable."
       Hier has been a member of the Romeo School Board for 12 years. She was named the board's president for a second term in 2007.
       School officials, including Hier, questioned, under the board's policy as well as the Open Meetings Act, whether Lerchen was permitted to make comments that Hier referred to as a personal attack. Following 90 minutes of public comments, Superintendent Joe Beck read aloud both the policy and the section of the Open Meetings Act which addressed the issue.
       "Do what you want to me," Hier said. "You can make a censure motion if you want."
       A censure resolution reprimands a board member with the hopes of reforming him or her so that they will not behave in the same way again.
       Trustees Stobak and Jennifer White wanted to examine the allegations at Monday's board meeting, while Trustee Kathleen Wreford motioned for the board to go into scheduled closed session since school attorneys had been waiting in the audience while residents spoke.
       "These are very serious accusations," White said. "At least we need to hear what (Lerchen) has to say."
       Board members decided to table the issue, making it the first item on the Feb. 25 meeting agenda.
       Hier, who repeatedly asked Lerchen to stop her comments, declined to comment on the alleged incident.