Greencastle City Council members get vocal about School Board applicants

While the Greencastle City Council heard about the Greencastle School Board, there were plenty of fireworks between two council members when it came to deadline to get paperwork to city hall for the Greencastle School Board, which was last Friday. 

A total of five applicants applied for the school board, which is one of only a few appointed boards in the state. 

However, councilman David Masten had concerns about the applicants, sparking a back-and-forth heated debate between himself and councilman Vincent Aguirre, who is the lone Democrat on the council.

Masten asked for the deadline to be extended and interviews of candidates pushed out further, and Aguirre asked what the reasons were for his request.

The two went back and forth about the reasons Masten wanted an extension, with Aguirre alleging he wanted more time to ensure his "friends" could get in on the process. 

"So you want to appoint people who miss deadlines to a school board," Aguirre asked Masten. 

Masten made a motion to extend the deadline, prompting Aguirre to express his concern over a comment Masten said.

"I don't think there is very much diversity....," Masten started before Aguirre interrupted asking Masten to say exactly what he said. 

"Say what you said Councilman. You want to make this political so your friends have extra time to vote? That is ridiculous and I am not going to let you do that," Aguirre said. 

Masten told Aguirre to stop him and find four votes to stop the motion. 

"I hope I do, and I hope it puts an end to you constantly doing this," Aguirre said. 

Brian Cox, a member of the school board, questioned Masten and the council of the motion. 

"So I just want to make sure this is clear that the people who cared enough to pay enough attention to meet the deadline, met the deadline, but because other people didn't have a high enough priority for the school that we're now going to change the rules," Cox asked. 

Masten, a Republican, said the desire of his ask was not political. 

"I read the resumes. There are outstanding qualifications here. Okay, but that doesn't mean those are the only five. And, all I am asking for is to extend this arbitrary deadline that was going to cost out. It comes down to me having discussions with people who didn't have enough time to get their applications in on time," Masten said. 

Langdon tried several times to reign the discussion back in for a vote. 

The council voted to keep the five applicants as was and move forward with interviews slated for the first week of June.