By Kayode Crown
A former Huntsville City Schools employee has claimed the school board president should not have voted to change nepotism policy that apparently benefited him.
Keith Ward, who retired in 2019 from Huntsville City Schools after over 20 years as communications director, is asking the Alabama Ethics Commission to investigate Ryan Renaud for the vote he cast in 2021, before he became board president. But Renaud said he did nothing wrong in his statement to AL.com this morning.
The previous nepotism policy would have barred Renaud’s future wife, a teacher, from continuing to work in the school district, Ward said.
“The first alleged violation occurred on December 7th, 2021, when Ryan Renaud supported and voted for a change in a nepotism policy which originally prohibited any board member from having an immediate family member employed by the school district,” Ward said in a written statement this week.
Ward provided the previous version of nepotism policy which stated that “No family members of Board members as defined in the Alabama Ethics law shall be employed by the Board, and any family member of a Board member who is employed by the Board upon their family member’s election shall resign their position with the Board before their daily member assumes office.”
The new version removes any limitation on the district’s employment of Board member relatives.
Renaud’s wedding occurred three months after his vote, Ward said.
“Without the change in the policy, she would be forced to seek employment at another school district,” Ward said in the release.
Ward runs a YouTube channel, which he began this year with the first episode partly dedicated to exploring the allegation of wrongful voting against Renaud, referencing board meeting videos.
Another board member, Michelle Watkins, noted in a discussion a month before the vote, “I don’t want someone to feel pressure because they have someone like the staff of a board member in their district.”
“Let’s just be honest. We have a board member that is about to get married and we don’t need their spouse working directly in the district they’re in,” Watkins said.
She reiterated her objection on the day of the vote.
“I understand that I am the only one who sees a problem with it because you are allowing a board member to have a fiancée who they are going to marry in their district,” Watkins said in an exchange with board attorney Chris Pape before the vote as seen on video.
Pape said the new nepotism policy is in line with the state law “that was enacted in 2015.”
Watkins was the only dissenting vote among the five board members, with Renaud voting for the policy change.
But Renaud maintains that he has done nothing wrong.
“Mr. Ward’s complaint is baseless and without merit. I’m confident that my service on the Board of Education has been 100% compliant with the Alabama Code of Ethics & The School Board Governance Improvement Act of 2012,” Renaud said in a statement to AL.com this morning.
Ward also alleged that Renaud interfered with the daily operations of the school system when he told a parent in a leaked email Ward shared with the press that the principal of an elementary school where his wife teaches creates a “toxic environment.”
Renaud said in the leaked email that the principal “should not ever express frustration to her staff for going to central office admin to seek additional support or resources—that is intact (sic) what they are there for—especially when they are forced to do so because of her lack of attention to the matter. I have made that clear to her and the staff in that building when the opportunity has presented itself.”
Ward is alleging that Renaud violated two provisions of the School Board Governance Improvement Act.
The two provisions related to the allegations are that “no decision, action, or vote shall be taken or made to serve or promote the personal, political, or pecuniary interests of the member,” and that a board member “may not individually or jointly attempt to direct or corrupt the operations of the school system in a manner that is inconsistent with the discharge of the statutory functions and responsibilities of the local superintendent of education,” Ward said in the release.
