Fosters: Oyster River School Board breaks Right to Know, superintendent search still valid

This article appeared in today's issue of Fosters Daily Democrat, and is posted here with their kind permission:

Oyster River School Board breaks Right to Know, superintendent search still valid

By ANDREA BULFINCH

abulfinch@fosters.com
Wednesday, February 29, 2012

DOVER— While a Superior Court ruling found the Oyster River School Board violated the Right to Know law, it has not invalidated the board's actions taken in the superintendent search process.

According to board attorney Dennis Ducharme, the board may move forward now with the signing of a contract, still in negotiations, between the district and the selected candidate for superintendent, James Morse.

"I think that was the most important piece from my perspective," Ducharme said. The suit, filed by Durham resident and former board member David Taylor, alleges the board violated state Right to Know law as well as the board's own policies relating to meetings held and decisions made during the search process. The court did find that the board violated the law and its own policies and enjoined the board from committing future violations to include voting by secret ballot where prohibited by law and communicating by email so as to circumvent the statute's public meeting requirement, the conduct that resulted in the violations.

The board was also found to have violated the Right to Know law in its process for selecting community members to the screening committee in the superintendent search. It also failed to publish minutes of a public meeting within the time required by law.

Taylor said he considered this a fair decision and hopes the board does not continue the same behavior in the future.

"I hope they start respecting the citizens right to know," he said.

He also said he hopes the board will listen to the superintendent in the future as he claims there have been times the board has ignored instructions.

"Hope the turnover of the board and the turnover of the superintendent will turn over a new leaf in the district," he said.

Should violations be made in the future it is unclear whether the board could be sanctioned as a whole, or if individual members would be sanctioned. Ducharme said it wasn't something he could comment on nor could he speculate what issues might come up in the future as it would depend on what Taylor would decide to do should he feel the board has committed any further violations.

"Every case is different and exactly what perceived wrong he will find down the road or arguments he will make, I can't speculate," he said.

Taylor, who also filed a suit against the board in 2011 alleging improper meetings were held before former superintendent Howard Colter's buyout as well as during the search for an interim superintendent pertaining to making decisions on how to conduct the search, said he will continue to make sure the board changes how they conduct themselves in the future, giving the public the information they have a right to.

Ducharme maintained the board worked very hard during the Colter negotiations to meet the confidentiality needs that were raised by the attorneys of each party and that he feels the same is true of the search process. He also said there aren't many boards that could handle the scrutiny the way Oyster River has.

"I don't think there's a board in the state that could stand up to the scrutiny of Mr. Taylors obsession with checking postings and minutes," he said.

The board had previously shared some concern that if the judge were to invalidate actions taken in the search process, that the delay could result in the loss of Morse. Court documents state the difficulty in restarting the selection process would not be sufficient by itself to save the board from an order invalidating its actions, but it was a factor in the court's analysis.

Board member James Kach, who visited Morse's current school district in Portland, Maine, recently, said he's glad things can progress at this point."I am thrilled that we can move ahead with the hiring of Dr. Morse," he said. He acknowledged that any further violations would result in more than a slap on the wrist by the court, but said the board would be meeting with Ducharme to understand exactly what that would mean. While the suit halted the actual signing of a contract between the board and Morse, he also said that ultimately, Taylor's cases have actually helped in that the board will now be held to a higher standard in its practices than any other board.

"If we made mistakes it was never with the intention of trying to do anything in secret or behind closed doors," he said.

Kach hopes there will be something finalized with Morse by the next board meeting on March 7.

Board member Megan Turnbull said she had no comment on the decision until she was able to gain a better understanding from Ducharme. Interim Superintendent Leon Levesque was unavailable for comment on the decision on Tuesday. Ducharme said the board has every intention of working with this ruling and moving on.

"In terms of going forward, it's the board's intention to comply with the court's order. I'm not naive enough to believe that there's not going to be a time when Mr. Taylor thinks they've done something wrong," Ducharme said.