Paralyzed school board makes no votes

HESPERIA • The most powerful member of the Hesperia Unified School District school board Monday night was the one who wasn’t there.

Board member Anthony Riley was missing at the start of the meeting, leaving the board with an even number of votes. When board members clashed about items on the agenda, and split down the middle on whether to approve the agenda, the board was unable to approve any course of action for the evening and legally could do nothing requiring further votes.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Riley, we’re not having a board meeting tonight,” board vice-president Lee Rogers told Riley when he arrived at 8 p.m., 90 minutes after the scheduled 6:30 p.m. start of the public portion of the meeting.

Board members Hardy Black and Chris Bentley had clashed over several of the information items placed on the agenda by Bentley, some of which had been bouncing from agenda to agenda since January, never being taken up by the board.

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