Harford Board of Education President Aaron Poynton said a motion earlier this month to remove Vice President Melissa Hahn from her leadership position was “improperly declared as passed” and that the vote would be removed from future meeting agendas.

Poynton sent a letter to fellow school board members Tuesday stating that he met with the board’s legal counsel and determined that, per the board’s recently adopted handbook and policy for meeting procedures, the initial motion to take a vote on removing Hahn as board vice president did not qualify as a valid motion since Hahn did not have the opportunity to vote.

“This decision addresses solely the procedural viability of the motion itself,” Poynton’s letter states. “It does not address the substantive rationale underlying the motion, nor does it resolve several secondary issues raised, which include the eligibility of an officer serving a fixed term for removal and the voting rights of an individual subject to removal in situations of personal conflict of interest.”

The motion was made at the start of the board’s Oct. 21 meeting by board member Carol Mueller, who said Hahn inappropriately called for Superintendent Sean Bulson’s resignation last month following a fatal shooting at Joppatowne High School.

“The reason why I am asking for Mrs. Hahn’s removal is because she is supposed to be board leadership and I do not feel like she is leading this board when she goes off on her own, two meetings in a row, to tell an employee of the board that they have to resign, a personnel matter like that should be private,” Mueller said during the Oct. 21 meeting. “You have to look at how she has been acting as a leader to see why I want to have her removed as vice president.”

Mueller, along with board members Wade Sewell, Carol Bruce and Denise Perry and student member Sasha Pazoki voted in favor of the motion. Dissenting votes were cast by board members Diane Alvarez, Terri Kocher, Lauren Strauss and Poynton.

Hahn was visiting a gravely ill relative in the hospital during the meeting, which prompted her to join the meeting late online once she was informed of the motion. She was not able to vote on the motion.

Due to her absence, Poynton made a motion to have the vote on her removal as vice president tabled until the board’s Nov. 4 meeting. However, Poynton’s letter said the initial motion to add the vote to the agenda was not valid because the board’s handbook states that a valid motion requires a majority concurrence of the entire board, regardless of absence.

“A valid motion requires a majority concurrence of the ‘entire board’ or ‘whole board,’ respectively, which is generally defined as the total membership of the board, irrespective of attendance, vacancies, or voting status,” the policy reads.

According to the policy, the board would have needed all 10 members to vote, with a majority vote of six members needed to pass the motion — not the five who voted to add it to the agenda.

“According to our handbook, the vote should have never been added to the agenda in the first place,” Poynton said.

With the discovery that the initial motion is invalid, Poynton’s letter stated that the board will take the following corrective measures to align with the parliamentary procedure manual Robert’s Rules of Order:

Point of order: the item will be placed on an agenda for an upcoming meeting where the improper motion will be formally addressed. Poynton will clarify that the motion did not achieve the required motion to pass.
Correction of minutes: since the minutes from the Oct. 21 meeting reflect that the motion passed, the minutes will need to be amended to indicate that the motion did not pass to ensure an accurate and complete record of the meeting.
Removal from future agendas: once it is formally recognized that the motion did not pass, the action will be recorded in the minutes and noted for transparency. Following, the motion will not appear on future agendas unless properly reintroduced through a new motion.

Mueller said she will not reintroduce the motion for Hahn’s leadership removal.

“Not because I don’t want to see Melissa removed as vice president, but because the vote will be 5 to 5 and the motion will not pass,” Mueller wrote.

Hahn said she wants to wait to comment until after the board’s next meeting on Monday when further conversation regarding her removal from board leadership is expected to continue.

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