News Photo by Crystal Nelson Alpena Public Schools Trustee Eric Lawson, left, listens to Superintendent Dave Rabbideau during a special board meeting Monday night. Administrative Assistant Lorie Kneeshaw is pictured in the middle.

ALPENA — Criticism of the Alpena Public Schools Board of Education has increased at public meetings, with parents and residents since March asking the board to take a stand on mask-wearing and other national political issues.

That continued on Monday, when at least one person expressed anger at what they perceived to be the school board’s political agenda.

Residents have asked trustees to make their positions known on masks, forced vaccinations, critical race theory, the Black Lives Matter movement, climate change, and whether the district would allow students who identify as transgender to participate in sports or use locker rooms of the gender with which they identify. Local school boards have no say on many of those issues, with state or federal mandates forcing the district’s hand.

Superintendent Dave Rabbideau said during a special board meeting on Monday the district will schedule a town hall meeting the first week of August.

Rabbideau said the board has a policy to not respond to public comment, but a town hall meeting would be a good place to engage in dialogue with residents. Rabbideau said he’s heard a lot of general accusations, but he wants to hear specifics.

“Maybe in this dialogue that I have, I can ask them, what, specifically, you’re talking about as far as APS is concerned,” he said. “I know these are national issues that they’re bringing up, but I don’t know that we’re doing anything that they might think we are doing.”

Parents and residents who have addressed the board over the last three months, but have not had their concerns addressed by the school board, have become increasingly vocal about their concerns.

Earlier this month, parent Michael Mantas said that, after attending board meetings and reading board minutes, it seemed clear district leadership steers the school board to indoctrinate children into a political agenda, instead of educating them.

“We’re no longer interested in trusting the school district, and the school board’s experts in the education of our children,” he said. “We realize that no person other than parents can be trusted to educate instead of indoctrinate. We as parents will be taking the lead in the education of our children, and, if we do not approve of what and how they’re being taught, we will take action to stop and prevent it.”

Several parents in May asked the board to end mask mandates for students, with parent Michelle Smith telling the board of a petition she started received 990 signatures in support of unmasking students.

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services required masks for students last school year amid the coronavirus pandemic and will set policy for the upcoming school year.

Parent Tracie Schaedig told the board in May that masking should be a parent’s choice and she would transfer her seven children to another district if the district’s mask policy remained in place.

Although criticism of the board and district officials is growing locally, parent frustrations have not turned violent.

That hasn’t been the case for school districts across the nation. In Virginia, police arrested one man and issued a trespassing summons to another last week after a school board cut off public comment about the treatment of transgender students, according to Newsweek.

The meeting became heated following protests from parents in the Virginia district who disagree with a proposed policy on transgender rights and who oppose the teaching of critical race theory in schools.

In other business

The Alpena Public Schools Board of Education on Monday also:

* tabled a decision on the construction of a new district transportation facility. Superintendent Dave Rabbideau said the development was supposed to occur at no cost to the district and recommended the board step away from the deal now that the developer asked the district to pay $500,000. Instead of terminating the agreement, Treasurer Ned Heath and Trustee Ken Gembel said they wanted to give the developer the opportunity to make a counteroffer.

* approved a three-year contract with the district’s educational support professionals, which includes instructional assistants. Executive Director of Human Resources and Labor Relations Matt Poli said the contract includes a raise. Agreements have yet to be reached with the district’s teachers union and bus drivers.

* will allow Rabbideau to spend up to $100,000 for some site work changes at Ella White Elementary School. District officials were informed of a former garbage dump, bedrock, and clay that was discovered during an ongoing renovation project. The money would be used to prepare the site for further renovation.

* approved its budget for the 2021-22 fiscal year which begins July 1.