School district, board found guilty of violating information act
The West Memphis School District and its School Board are guilty of violating the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act regarding the selection last year of a superintendent and, as a result, must pay legal fees and a $1,500 fine.
Tammy Bell and Cheryl Roe, taxpaying residents of the school district, sued the district and its School Board last year, contending that the board on May 24 and 25 interviewed four superintendent candidates without giving public notice of their meetings for those interviews, contrary to the requirements of the law.
Joey McCutchen and Stephen Napurano, of the McCutchen
Sexton Napurano law firm in Fort Smith, filed the lawsuit Oct. 9 on behalf of Bell and Roe in Crittenden County Circuit Court.
In what is titled “Agreed Order,” Crittenden County Circuit Judge Keith L. Chrestman late last week noted that West Memphis district leaders admitted to interviewing the superintendent candidates without notice given to Bell, Roe, any media organizations, or the public.
The defendant school leaders further agreed that the failure to provide notice of the special meetings and the failure to record the parts of the meetings before and after holding the interviews in closed executive sessions “could be construed as a violation” of the state’s Freedom of Information Act.
“The Court hereby finds the Defendants violated FOIA by holding special meetings without notifying the media at least two hours before each meeting in order that the public shall have representatives present,” Chrestman wrote.
“The Court further finds the Defendants violated FOIA by not recording the special meetings as required … and maintaining the recordings for at least one year” as required by state law, the judge wrote.
In a news release announcing the agreed order, McCutchen described a chain of events that started in April, when the West Memphis
School Board went into an executive session to discuss personnel and, upon exiting, the closed session voted to terminate Superintendent Richard Atwill’s contract and provide him with a $350,000 severance package.
In May, the School Board announced that Terrence Brown had been selected as superintendent after interviews of four candidates were held without public notice in advance of the interviews.
“There was to be complete lack of transparency by several board members beginning with the termination of Dr. Richard Atwill, the payment of $350,000 of taxpayer money, and concluding with the secret hiring of the new replacement Superintendent Terrence Brown,” McCutchen, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said in the announcement of the agreement.
“This lawsuit is a perfect example of why the people of Arkansas are pursuing a constitutional amendment and peoples’ act to enshrine the right to transparency in our constitution,” McCutchen continued.
“This case is the perfect example of the need in the peoples’ law to allow a Circuit Court to hold individual wrongdoers personally liable with the imposition of a $1,000 civil penalty, which will not be satisfied with public funds. Conduct rewarded is conduct repeated,” he also said.
Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin in January certified a ballot title and popular name for a proposed amendment that clears the way for an organization known as Arkansas Citizens for Transparency to begin collecting signatures to get its proposal on the November ballot.
Griffin has also certified the title for a proposed initiated act to protect the state’s sunshine law. The certification allows supporters of the proposal to begin their petition campaign, which will require 72,563 signatures to be turned in to the secretary of state’s office by July 5 in order for the proposed initiated act to be placed on the November ballot. A law passed in 2023 requires the signatures to be collected from at least 50 counties in the state.