Mumford accused of violations, WL school board starts censure process

School board members accuse board member Dacia Mumford of being a ‘distraction.’ She says it’s the ‘same people who don’t want anyone to know what’s going on’ with West Side schools

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WEST LAFAYETTE SCHOOL BOARD MOVES TO CENSURE MUMFORD

Two years of bad blood came to a head Monday, when the West Lafayette school board initiated a process that could censure member Dacia Mumford.

In a 6-0 vote, with Mumford abstaining, the school board called for a private meeting between Mumford, school board president Amy Austin and the district’s attorney to go over what one board member called a series of violations of school board policy by Mumford.

Specifically, Mumford was called out for harassing board members and constituents with versions of school board minutes and commentary she distributes and for using a community Facebook page on Sept. 7 to post unredacted public records of people who’d signed petitions to get candidates on the November school board ballot.

Dacia Mumford, right, discusses a move to censure her on the West Lafayette school board, as school board members Rachel Witt and Laurence Wang listen. (Photo: Dave Bangert)

“I believe at this point, Mrs. Mumford’s action do constitute an unnecessary distraction, and I believe we as a board owe it to our community to hear them and respond to them according to our bylaws,” Rachel Witt, a school board member, said.

“To be clear, I’m not alleging Mrs. Mumford’s activities are illegal, I am alleging that they are in violation of school board policy,” Witt said. “They are unnecessary, mean-spirited and politically motivated without clear beneficial purpose to our students and schools.”

Mumford apologized during the meeting for posting documents with addresses, birth dates and signatures of voters listed with filings for six candidates running for four school board seats on Nov. 5. She said she received the documents through a public records request and posted them as they were to a Facebook group called Friends of WL Schools Open Forum – a spot with a reputation for sharing district news, along with sometimes heated spats, anonymous rumors and trolling.

After the meeting, Mumford said she was just attempting to show who was lining up behind each of the six candidates. Mumford eventually blacked-out all but the names on the forms after candidates and several people who’d contributed signatures called her out.

But Mumford called Monday’s move by the school board “obviously orchestrated.”