At Manville's Board of Education meeting on Tuesday May 13th, the topic of High School graduation was brought up again. During Superintendent Jamil Maroun's update report, he mentioned the graduation time would be 1:45pm, and reiterated that the time was sent out in an August 29th notice, before the school year started.

He stated the time was set in collaboration with the district administration and the building administration, and that the Board of Education members were notified, and they will re-evaluate the time for future years. The Board of Education did not vote on this time change.

He continued to reiterate that when concerns were raised back in April, that they will continue to move forward with the original 1:45 time, as families were already making plans based on that time.

"We recognize that this is a change, and again, we will continue to evaluate it and will readdress it. But at this point, it would not be fair for the folks in our community who made arrangements and plans based on the 1:45 notification that they received on August 29th to make a change," stated Superintendent Jamil Maroun.

Board Member Sharon Lukac began discussing the notice and time: "You sent out one notice, I asked at the last meeting if anything else was sent out. I don't even remember what I got 2 weeks ago in the mail or in my email. I don't find it fair that this may be a graduation that only certain kids get to go to with their family, that they'll ever get to see, as they will not go to college,"

She continued: "We answer to our community. And our community is very upset about this. So, I actually want to make a motion. And my motion is I'd like to change it to 6 o'clock. Can I have a second?"

"I'll second it." responded board member Tyler Canica.

"So, I'm going to ask. So the decision to make graduation time at 6pm is a decision that the administration makes. The Board of Education can propose a policy," responded Superintendent Jamil Maroun.

There was discussion among the Board Members defending the time of 1:45, and Mrs. Lukac continued to push how plans for dinners can be changed, that graduation is important to the community, and the 6pm time has been tradition for decades. It was also noted that the Board never voted on the time of 1:45.

There was confusion among the Board about how to handle Mrs. Lukac's motion. She put it on the floor, and had a second. Typically, a Roll Call vote would follow.

"I think the right way to decide what time graduation time is is through committee, in setting policy, which is what we do as a Board. Not by making motions, and overturning our administration, I don't feel comfortable about that either," Board President Justina Breen stated.

"And this is super hard for me because, I'm in favor of 6 o'clock, but I also, you know, as the president have to keep order and make sure we're doing correctly in public," she continued.

Then there was discussion regarding Robert's Rules. Robert's Rules are a set of procedures and guidelines for conducting meetings, and making decisions in meetings. It's the standard most organizations follow, including the Board of Education and Borough Council, for example.

Business Administrator Devanshu Modi appeared to be searching on his phone about Robert's Rules and how such a motion would be handled. Nobody on the Board of Education knew how to handle a motion that was not on the agenda.

"Based on a quick internet search, it appears as though there could be another motion to table, motion to table or postpone the motion followed by a second and roll call vote. But again, there's motion on the table," Mr. Modi responded.

Board President Justina Breen suggested Sharon Lukac can rescind or withdraw the motion, but Mrs. Lukac was not willing to do so.

Then, President Justina Breen made a motion to table Sharon Lukac's motion, to which she received a second, and a roll was taken. The only Board members who did not agree to table to the motion were Tyler Canica and Sharon Lukac.

The motion to table passed, but there was further confusion, because the motion was tabled. Justina Breen decided to go to Closed Session for "#8" which is "attorney-client privilege" on the Board of Education agenda for closed session item numbers.

"'til we call our attorney. Now we have to figure out how to handle this," Ms. Breen stated to Sharon Lukac.

"About what?" responded Mrs. Lukac.

"Your motion."

"You just denied it."

"No I didn't. I tabled it."

"You tabled it, so there's no vote,"

"No, I tabled it, that means not forever. Table just means over here," stated Ms. Breen.

"We want to make sure that we're handling this according to the letter of the law. Sorry, you guys," Board President Justina Breen stated as the Board left to go to Closed Session.

All Board Members, excluding Sharon Lukac, went into Closed Session. She remained in the room for a short while longer.

"Sharon, we're in closed session," Ms. Breen stated to Mrs. Lukac.

"I'm not going in closed session," responded Sharon Lukac.

"You have.."

"No, I'm not."

"Then you can't,"

"I'm legally not going in, I'm calling my attorney right now. You wanna call an attorney on me because I made a motion? I'm calling my attorney to protect me. You said that in public, you were calling the attorney about my motion." stated Sharon Lukac.

"Because we need to know how to handle the motion. That's all." Board President Justina Breen said.

Sharon Lukac left the room on the phone. When only the public was left in the room, students were complaining loudly about the graduation time, and how nobody was in favor of changing the time. Students speculated that they only sent the email out once back in August so that nobody would notice. Commentary from the audience members mentioned how "only 2 board members" understand the Manville community.

The students were very concerned about not only the graduation time, but also about how the school district is also providing teachers with caps and gowns with a special seating area at the ceremony. They appeared to not be in favor of these changes to the ceremony setup.

On Friday May 9th, a member of the public posted a letter on a local Manville Facebook group from High School principal Adam Wright (can be read here), asking parents who would be inconvenienced by the time change to contact him with their concerns. However, based on the initial commentary at the meeting, they were not going to change the time.

The Closed Session about how to handle Sharon Lukac's motion lasted slightly over 30 minutes.

When the Board returned from Closed Session, Board President Justina Breen said:

"I would just like to say that, we did consult with our attorney to make sure that we handled all the motions correctly. Being fair and consistent and abiding by Robert's Rules is super important to me, and all of us, and I wasn't sure. And, graduation is super important to me, making sure this is handled to the letter of the law was important. So we contacted the letter of the law. And we did handle everything correctly. So we will continue on with the agenda."

Part 2 of our special coverage on this community topic will cover pleas made by the students present to change the graduation time back to 6pm.