At a Barton Community College Board of Trustees meeting on Friday, trustee Don Learned spoke out against the sudden termination of longtime danceline/cheerleading coach Debbie Warren, who was fired by President Dr. Carl Heilman in December. Learned also criticized the board’s system of management, saying, "Under Policy Governance®, of course, we trustees really have little input on the operation of the college.

"I think many individuals in Barton County would be very surprised at how little input we trustees have concerning Barton College. I still have questions about Policy Governance and why we use it at Barton," he said

Learned, who has served on the board for six years, read a prepared statement that concluded with a motion for the board of trustees to "investigate all aspects of the termination of Mrs. Debbie Warren with the possibility of reinstating her back to her former position at Barton Community College." The motion died for lack of a second, as Learned expected it would.

"This motion probably will not get a second, but I wanted the public to know where I stand on that issue," he said. "I believe it would be a good idea to look again at the termination of Mrs. Warren by Dr. Heilman. When we trustees did not object to Dr. Heilman’s decision to terminate Mrs. Warren, I do not think we knew Mrs. Warren’s side of the situation. I believe some of her concerns may come out at a later date."

His motion came toward the end of the meeting. After the motion died the meeting continued with the final item on the agenda — an executive session for discussion of personnel. Heilman joined the board in that 45-minute discussion, which was closed to the public. When the open meeting resumed, acting chairman Mike Johnson said no action had been taken during the executive session, in accordance with the Kansas Open Meetings Law.

Before adjourning the meeting, Johnson said he took issue with the words of "one board member" earlier in the meeting. "He feels the board of trustees is not involved. ... That is the opinion of a single board member," Johnson said. "The board of trustees is heavily involved in this institution." Johnson also said the college president does a good job. He then declared the meeting adjourned.

The board uses the governance model designed by John Carver, who suggests board of all kinds should replace the outdated style of management — which leads to micro-management on one extreme or rubber stamping on the other — with leadership governance. According to the Carver website, Policy Governance allows boards to "focus on the larger issues, delegate with clarity and control management’s job without meddling. ... (Board) members state their expectations and demand a relevant and credible accounting of performance."

Under this form of governance, the president is given guidelines for how to treat employees, but he also has the authority to terminate one.

The board does approve all new hires. Earlier in Friday’s meeting, trustees approved two new employees for the Barton County campus: Angela Jones as a Microsoft Systems engineer and Shelli Stoss as an Enterprise Applications (EA) technical support specialist. The board also met three new on-campus employees it hired in January: Dr. Oleg Ravitskiy, life sciences instructor; Stephanie Joiner, head cheerleading coach; and Jared Grillot, academic tutor.

Joiner, hired to replace Warren, was a cheer instructor at Oklahoma State University and a dance instructor at Pittsburg State University. Athletic Director Craig Fletchall reported she has retained most of the students in her program, and they are preparing for nationals.