If there's one thing the York City School District doesn't need, it's a school board fractured by racial tension.

But that's apparently what exists.

Board President Jeanette Torres admitted as much after Wednesday night's contentious board meeting when she said there are "some serious race issues on this board."

And this is a board that was just seated a few months ago. How could so much have gone so wrong so quickly?

Members hardly know each other. Nevertheless, they've been squabbling almost from day one -- it started with the selection of officers for the new board, and when that didn't go the way some board members intended, a battle line was drawn in the sand.

On one side are four black members of the board -- Hiawatha Powell, Beverly Atwater, James Morgan and Sam Beard -- who vote as a bloc on almost every issue. On the other side are three white members -- Tom Foust, Barb Krier and Renee Nelson -- and one black member, Elmira Sexton, who also frequently votes as one.

That leaves Torres, a Hispanic, to break the tie when necessary.

The matter of race came to a head Wednesday night, when Powell accused Krier of making a racist remark at last week's executive session.

Normally, what is said and done in executive session stays in executive session. It is typically not for public consumption.

But Powell plowed through that roadblock by raising the matter during a public comment period Wednesday night. He was determined that the public be advised

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of Krier's comment.

According to several accounts, members of the board were involved in a heated discussion during the executive session about paying a Spanish-speaking secretary more money -- 50 cents an hour or thereabouts -- than is being paid to other secretaries. Half of the board thought the woman's bilingual skills were worth a few extra dollars a week, while the other half wanted to hear none of it.

At one point in the debate, Krier looked at Powell and said, "That's the trouble with you pe..." and then stopped in mid-sentence. Powell determined that Krier's unfinished word was going to be "people," as in "That's the trouble with you people. ..." and he figured he knew a racist comment when he heard one.

It seems likely that Krier's next word was going to be "people." Does that make her a racist? Not necessarily, but it's not unreasonable for Powell to question what she was about to say and ask where she was coming from when she was about say it.

Is that the equivalent to making a mountain out of a molehill? Maybe. Maybe not. It depends on one's point of view. And the collective point of view on this board at this moment seems to be split mostly along racial lines.

That's too bad. Too bad for the board. Too bad for the school district. And too bad for the students attending school in the district. Because there are too many important matters for this board to attend to
before they start calling each other names based on the color of one's skin.

This racial nonsense has already raised its ugly head at a time when the district should have been showing solidarity and a unity of purpose. Last week, during the public get-to-know-you session with superintendent candidate Timothy Quinn, formerly an administrator at the Elizabethtown Area School District in Lancaster County, only three school board members showed up -- Torres, Foust and Krier. James Morgan made an appearance 20 minutes before the meeting adjourned.

Members of the board, as the elected representatives for taxpayers in the district, had an obligation to put their best foot forward in presenting Quinn to the public. They blew it -- half the board stayed home. And it was obvious.

Was it a formal boycott of Quinn, who is white, by black board members because of what happened in the executive session the night before? I don't know. But there was no excuse for it.

Krier and Powell need to sit down and mend their fences. In private. Behind closed doors. Just the two of them. But even if that doesn't happen, there is every reason to expect them to conduct themselves professionally when representing the school district.

Even if that means biting their tongues sometimes.

And even if they hate each other's guts.

The school district and its students must come first.

Columns by Larry A. Hicks, Dispatch columnist, run Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. E-mail: lhicks@yorkdispatch.com.