The alleged hostile behavior of an elected member of the Otto-Eldred School Board led the remainder of the board to issue a public censure at Tuesday’s meeting.
The exchange is audio recorded on a YouTube video of the board meeting.
On the recording, board president Cynthia Murphy explained the alleged behavior of Matt Windsor led her to seek a legal opinion from solicitor Christian Mattie III on what could be done.
At about the 34-minute mark of the recording, Murphy said, “After conferring with Mr. Mattie, I want to make a motion to publicly censure Matt Windsor for his behaviors.”
Reading from a letter, she said, “His comments show a pattern of yelling and inappropriate communication towards board members and school staff. We find these behaviors do not align with (Pennsylvania School Boards Association) school board members’ principles for governance and leadership and they’re detrimental to the board and district operations.”
She asked for a second to the motion “so we can discuss this.” Several board members spoke up at once. Murphy replied, “There are seconds everywhere.”
She said Windsor was not at the meeting, but if the board approved the letter, it would be mailed to him Wednesday morning.
Contacted Wednesday night, Windsor said he was not aware of the matter, and had yet to receive the letter. When The Era explained the contents of the letter as read at the meeting, Windsor replied, “I really don’t care what they did. I will make sure they are held accountable.
“I’m on the board for another four years.”
He added that if the citizens in his voting region don’t like him, they can vote him out when his term is up.
“There’s a lot of problems with that school district,” Windsor said, adding he’s there to serve the community, not the other board members.
As for the board members, he said, “I really don’t care what they think.”
At the meeting, Murphy had said the censure was all the board could do, as Windsor is an elected official. An audience member identified as Lance Baker spoke up, saying he participated in a Zoom meeting in November and heard Windsor reacting angrily to something. He said he wondered why no one had challenged him.
Murphy said, “The reality is, in the past, when he has those outbursts, if we challenge him, it gets worse. We tried to just settle it down as fast as we could, finish the meeting and move on. This is the best option that we have, the only option we really have.”
The board unanimously approved the motion, and Baker thanked the board for taking what action they could.
On Wednesday, a message sent to Murphy on social media was not immediately returned.
While Mattie returned a call to The Era, he admonished a reporter for interrupting his dinner, and said only, “I do not discuss client business with other people.”
