MOUNTAIN HOME, Ark. — The Mountain Home School District lost a lawsuit this week that alleged its school board violated open-meetings laws by conducting business through text messages.
On Tuesday, July 23, Baxter County Circuit Court Judge John Putman ruled against the district in a FOIA lawsuit filed by Melissa Klinger, represented by Joey McCutchen, a noted FOIA lawyer in Arkansas. The lawsuit said board members violated Arkansas laws by exchanging texts about school business, including a millage increase.
“What are we teaching our children?” McCutchen asked. “Are we teaching them they can do wrong and face no consequences? There have to be consequences to the actions or our children are going to do the same thing again. Are we going to lead by example? Actions speak louder than words.”
In one of the exchanges from February 2023, former Superintendent Jake Long texted board member Lisa House to ask if she would support a millage increase. He followed up with another text indicating he had polled each board member on how they would vote prior to the meeting. The court said that constituted an illegal meeting.
“I think this order is important because now, we’ve got a court order that says they violated the Freedom of Information Act and they shouldn’t do it in the future,” McCutchen said.
In a statement to the Mountain Home Observer, current Superintendent Allyson Dewey said the district is moving forward and the board is making efforts to rebuild trust.
The criticisms of the school district did not end with the actions of the former superintendent, though.
“I think the current superintendent wants to keep talking about how transparent they’ve been, yet, Melissa Klinger has proposed to them that they have a new public comments section where they’re not micromanaging comments and making, as the current policy requires, folks send in their comments and they get to approve them or disapprove them,” McCutchen said. “But rather, have a comments section that citizens can comment on any item that they desire. We think that’s transparent and the citizens ought to be able to comment and shouldn’t be micromanaged on the concerns they have and what they want to communicate with the school board.”
McCutchen said he did not ask for attorney fees in this because it is a penalty to the taxpayer. He pointed out that there is no personal civil penalty and the taxpayers would have to foot the bill which, to him, is not right.
“It speaks to the need to amend FOIA and place a personal civil penalty on these school board members who don’t follow the law,” McCutchen said. “Conduct rewarded is conduct repeated.”
McCutchen told NEA Report this week the open meetings law is an important one, because it means that the public gets an explanation for the vote and not just the results at the meeting.
“The bottom line is, if we’re not able to see how the sausage is being made, we don’t know why they’re making the decisions they make,” McCutchen said. “If we’re able to see the sausage being made, we may disagree with the ultimate decision but at least were able to see the process and not just the final result. I think seeing the discussions and the give and take, that leads to trust in our government. But when you just see people get up and take a final vote, it leads to distrust. We ask ourselves, ‘How did they reach that result?'”
MORE: Klinger vs. Mtn. Home School 03CV-24-169
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Millage increase? Okey-dokey. More money for the bureaucracy, always trying to get another egg from the golden goose. Like it will never end. Term limits should be in effect all the way from the federal level down to local.