What problem is Mr. Freeman having with the schoolboard?

In Laurie Halse Anderson's novel Speak, the main character, Melinda, has few adults that she likes and can trust in her life. One of the reasons that her art teacher, Mr. Freeman, makes this list is because he stands up to "the man"—in this case, the school board. 

Readers first encounter Mr. Freeman's troubles with the school board on page 31. We learn that they have refused to give him any money to buy new supplies for the students; instead he'll need to use whatever is left over from the previous year. His reaction at first is to rant to the students, who are completely bored by him and the problem.

By page 62, however, Mr. Freeman has changed tactics. Instead of ranting, he gets to work on a huge painting to express his frustration. 

"It started out bleak—a gutted building along a gray road on a rainy day. He spent a week painting dirty coins on the sidewalk, sweating to get them just right. He painted the faces of school board members peering out the windows of the building, then he put bars on the windows and turned the building into a prison. His canvas is better than TV because you never know what's going to happen next" (pg. 62). 

The fact that Mr. Freeman is getting out his frustrations through art is important to the plot, because Melinda eventually learns to do the same thing. This is the same section of the book in which Melinda makes her turkey carcass sculpture, a pivotal moment of her beginning to express her pain to others through her art. She is clearly learning this from Mr. Freeman. 

Mr. Freeman's troubles continue, though, due to the fact that he refuses to stick to the stuffy idea of "serious education" that the rest of Merryweather High School seems to value. Melinda describes his room as "Cool Central. He keeps the radio on. We are allowed to eat as long as we work" (pg 77).

Even though that sounds pretty tame, it clearly rubs the authorities the wrong way. Melinda describes Principal Principal coming in one day, "his mustache [moving] up and down, a radar sweep for all things unruly" (pg. 78). When the administration of the school realize Mr. Freeman stopped keeping paperwork when his supply budget was cut and is giving all As to his students, he suffers some unseen consequences and spirals into depression on page 91.

Throughout the novel, we see his fight with authorities as a mirror for Melinda's struggles with the authority figures in her own life. Just like her parents and most teachers can't understand Melinda's pain and trauma, the school board and administrators can't understand Mr. Freeman's method of teaching, even though they are clearly working for a lot of his students, Melinda included.