Leaders not guilty, probe finds
Board members had discussed official business via texts, email
Board members for a Seminole County charter school that faced upheaval last school year over the departure of its principal did not knowingly violate the state’s Sunshine Laws by sending group text messages, and so they did not commit a crime, the state attorney’s office has concluded.
Choices in Learning Elementary Charter School’s principal resigned under pressure last year. Angry parents then started an online petition demanding she be reinstated, creating unusual angst at the A-rated public school in Winter Springs that typically has hundreds of students on its waiting list.
The conflict, by most accounts, began when one board member, whose children attended the school, got angry at the principal because he was not allowed to deliver a birthday tiara to his daughter during class.
After the principal resigned, some parents filed public records requests for school documents, emails and messages. They contacted the Seminole County Sheriff ’s Office when they found group texts from board members related to board business and emails that showed one board member doing school research with his personal email.
Both suggested, they said, that public board business was being conducted in private, in violation of state law.
The parents also noted that an investigative report — one the board hired an attorney to conduct — mentioned allegations that the board “operates a group chat between members” and said that, if true, that would be a “clear violation of Florida’s government in the sunshine law.”
Like other charter schools, Choices in Learning is a public school, funded by taxpayer money, though it is run by a private group that operates under a contract approved by the Seminole County School Board.
The state attorney’s office, after going to court because the school fought the investigative subpoenas, eventually obtained for the sheriff ’s office nearly 6,000 messages and emails from Choices in Learning.
Both the sheriff ’s detective who investigated and the state attorney’s office agreed that while there were group messages about school business, including the resignation of Principal Erin Mandell in November, they showed the board members’ ignorance of the state’s laws “not their willful and knowing violation” of them, according to a Nov. 30 letter from Stacey Straub Salmons, chief assistant state attorney for Brevard and Seminole counties, to the detective.
For that reason, the state attorney’s office would not pursue criminal charges, Salmons wrote. It could seek a “noncriminal infraction,” punishable by a fine, against board members but
decided that would have an unwelcome “chilling effect” on a voluntary, unpaid board, she added.
The detective’s investigation, and the state attorney’s review, should serve to “caution” the school and its board “to strictly adhere to the requirements of Florida’s Sunshine Law in the future,” she wrote.
Tina Craft, chair of the Choices in Learning board, forwarded both Salmons’ letter and the one from the detective to the Orlando Sentinel on Wednesday.
“We appreciate the thorough review of the allegations made against the School and the Board of Directors and are pleased to read the results of the closure letters,” she wrote in an email.
Craft also wrote that the “best-inclass” school is “committed to serving our students with excellence.”
She did not respond to emails seeking answers to additional questions.
Choices in Learning hired a new principal, Jordan Rodriguez, a former Seminole County Public Schools principal, in April.
The state attorney’s office also said that the school did not violate state public records laws by failing to respond to requests for public documents. That law was “subjective,” Salmons wrote, and there was “no basis” to file charges that board members were unresponsive or delayed filling requests.
Stacey Barber, one of the parents who asked the sheriff ’s office to investigate, said by email that the state attorney’s office did “a great job and investigated what they were able to do.”
Barber, whose daughter attends the school, said board members should follow the law, even if they are unpaid volunteers.
They are “educated individuals and have been trained in the sunshine law and should act accordingly,” she wrote. “Withholding documents, spending time, resources and funding to protect themselves is another example of the misaligned priorities of the board.”