Superintendent Brent Wilson
ANGOLA — A lawsuit was filed late Wednesday against the Metropolitan School District of Steuben County board over an alleged Indiana Open Door violation that’s related to ongoing turmoil between it and Superintendent Brent Wilson.
The suit follows Wilson’s attorneys having first filed a public access complaint, alleging the board held an illegal executive session in January. Public Access Counselor Luke Britt on Thursday said a decision in the Feb. 8 complaint has not been rendered.
The lawsuit asks the Steuben Circuit Court to enjoin the board from continuing to violate the Indiana Open Door Law, something the lawsuit alleges is a continuing problem of the MSD board. The suit also seeks to void any action taken by the board in an illegal session.
The suit also seeks court costs and attorney fees on Wilson’s behalf. In public access suits, costs can only be awarded if a PAC complaint is first filed.
The public access complaint alleges that the school board held an illegal meeting on Jan. 27. The meeting notice said the board was going to discuss pending litigation, which is allowed under the Indiana Open Door Law, but correspondence between MSD board President Cory Archbold and school personnel said a topic not allowed under the law was discussed.
Archbold’s email on Feb. 1 said, “Last week the School Board met in an Executive Session regarding the search for our next Superintendent to start July 1, 2021.”
The search Archbold referenced is not one of the exceptions allowed for executive sessions in Indiana.
The email goes on to request the staff members to participate in a special meeting that was set up to start the search for a new superintendent because their input was considered valuable.
The suit asks the court to enjoin the board from continuing to hold illegal meetings, which the suit says have been frequent, dating to 2015.
“ ... the Board has conducted secret meetings and discussions, particularly with respect to Dr. Wilson’s employment contract as MSD’s Superintendent. Certain Board members have acted in bad faith and engaged in activities causing substantial harm to Dr. Wilson and undermining his contractual rights and benefits. The Board has intentionally engaged in these activities in private as opposed to conducting such business in public meetings,” the suit alleges. “Since 2015, Board members have communicated regularly in groups outside of public meetings. Certain Board members have repeatedly arrived at Board meetings already aware of matters to be discussed at the board meetings, appeared to have already determined how they were going to vote on a particular issue, and had little or no discussion of matters discussed in the public meeting upon which they were voting.”
In 2017 Assistant Superintendent Ann Rice received an informal decision from Britt where he recommended, “the school district … ensure discussions of substantive issues are held in front of the public.".
The next hearing in the case is Tuesday, which is a postponed date because Pence fell and injured herself prior to a January hearing.
In December, Steuben Superior Court Judge William Fee ruled that Wilson may move ahead with his lawsuit against the district and its school board, which had filed a motion that basically sought to dismiss the case.
Named in the suit are MSD and board members in place when the suit was filed March 3: Brad Gardner, Case Gilbert, LeAnn Boots, Cory Archbold, Marilyn McCormick, Kevin Beard and Scott Poor. McCormick resigned last year due to a change of address and has been replaced on the board by Rebecca Maggart, elected by District 2 voters in November. Gilbert’s District 1 seat was won by Mark Ridenour in last fall’s election.
The defendants, represented by attorney Matt Elliott, entered a motion for judgment. Fee denied the motion, allowing the suit to move forward.
The motion for judgment tested whether Wilson had a viable case. Fee said in his order that Wilson’s “pleadings are sufficient to bring a claim of breach of contract.”
Wilson says the board violated the terms of his contract when it removed a roll-over provision in 2016 without his consent. The five-year rollover provision added one additional year each year on June 30, resulting in a continuous five-year contract.
The MSD board and Wilson are in the middle of a contract dispute that has landed in Steuben Superior Court.
At the November school board meeting, the board voted 5-2 not to renew Wilson’s contract.
Fee said the board must defend its position because state law proffered by its legal team does not apply to contracts created in 2012 when Wilson and MSD agreed on the roll-over provision. Fee said the court should consider both the law and the terms of the contract.
“This is the heart of the plaintiff’s contention: That the contract was intended to bind the parties until Dr. Wilson’s retirement,” wrote Fee in his order, filed Dec. 28.
There had been discussion by board members — in emails outside of board meetings — where strategy with regard to Wilson’s contract was discussed. These emails were used as evidence against the board for skirting the Open Door Law in the PAC complaint.
The board members agreed that Wilson has performed well, but should he not, the board’s hands were tied by the contract’s rollover provision that would keep the superintendent in place until his retirement.
If the school board were to find a new superintendent and hire that individual July 1, as Archbold’s email suggested, and Wilson were to prevail in his contract suit, MSD could end up with two superintendents at the same time.
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