By JOHN W. HERTLEIN
I wholeheartedly apologize to any of the public that were accidently locked out of the Brocton Central School Board of Education meeting on Thursday.
I would assure you that you only missed the "Pledge to the Flag", the consent agenda (with the approval of the minutes of the Aug. 23 Board of Education meeting) and the warrants.
You may have missed a minute of Tom DeJoe's communications, first on reading a thank you card from Ruth Karalus and then the very beginning of a letter from the Chautauqua County Stampede.
I fully apologize for this inconvenience. The doors were unlocked and open at 6 p.m. for a meeting I had in my office at that time. The doors were also unlocked and open for a 6:30 p.m. celebration of teacher tenures and teacher awards held in the board room.
There were 22 people in attendance. I made the assumption that the doors were still unlocked having some public already seated for the Board of Education meeting. However, I should have double checked the doors prior to the 7 p.m. meeting.
I want to assure the general public that it was never the intent of this superintendent or the Board of Education to keep the public from attending any public meeting of the Brocton Central School.
On the contrary, both the Board of Education and the superintendent invite and encourage attendance at all special and regular Board of Education meetings. I am embarrassed about this situation and I will assure the public it will be my sole responsibility to make sure this never happens again. I thank you for your understanding on this unfortunate matter.
John W. Hertlein is superintendent of the Brocton Central School.
