Red Oak school board rejects settlement offer

 RED OAK – Unwilling to admit fault, Red Oak’s school board refused to accept an informal resolution to one of three pending Iowa Public Information complaints filed two months ago.

By a 4-1 vote at its Sept. 8 meeting, the board told its attorney to reword a portion of the resolution from “did not” meet Iowa law regarding proper agendas to “may not have.”

The complaint, filed by Margaret Stoldorf, accused the board of publishing an incomplete agenda prior to its June 30 meeting. While the agenda indicated personnel discussions would take place, it did not list specifically which positions would be filled.

Under the one agenda item, the board voted to hire Jeff Spotts interim principal and Barry Bower as interim assistant principal and athletic direc tor. The board then agreed upon Bower’s salary before hiring several other teaching and non-certified positions.

When asked by school board member Kathy Walker, the district’s attorney, Greg Barntsen, said he doesn’t believe the school district met the criteria established by Iowa law regarding how specific an agenda needs to be.

“I think more could have been said,” he said. “Just saying personnel doesn’t really tell a lay person much information. Personnel could be a kitchen worker. Maybe someone has an interest and they want to come because you are going to hire a new superintendent or a principal, but not if they are hiring a kitchen worker, not to demean the kitchen worker.”

However, when asked by board member Paul Griffen, Barntsen also confirmed the law doesn’t specifically state what’s required and that the matter has never been tried in court.

Griffen then said he opposed admitting fault when the wrongdoing only exists in the mind of the Iowa Public Information Board and its interpretation of the law.

“There has not been a determination made (the agenda was inadequate) and other school districts are doing the same thing.” Griffen said. “Why would we want to say we didn’t meet the criteria when what we did may have been adequate? We don’t know it wasn’t.”

Board President Lee Fellers agreed with Griffen the law is vague, making him unwilling to admit a mistake was made.

“There is a lot of grey there. We don’t’ really know,” Fellers said. “Until that gets challenged or better defined in the code, I think ‘may have’ may be the right [phrase].”

Fellers went on to question Stoldorf’s knowledge of the law and whether the district met the requirement while implying she may have unrealistic expectations.

“I don’t think Margaret Stoldorf really knows based on that definition whether or not we met that requirement,” he said. “I just don’t know if we will ever meet the standards of every individual person.”

Fellers and Barntsen both mentioned the school district has already taken steps by making agendas more specific. 

“They (IPIB) believe, and now we do as well in working with Terry, we could have done a better job of giving more specific information ... for people under consideration that evening,” Barntsen said. 

Kathy Walker voted against the changes to the resolution, which included other provisions such as attending an Iowa School Board Association training session on open meetings and agreeing to try to do better in the future.

“Are we willing to say we really want to fight this,” Walker asked.

As a result of the vote, Barntsen will revise the agreement and propose it to Stoldorf and the IPIB, both of which have to approve it as well.

Stoldorf though in an interview with the Express last week said while she would have accepted the original proposal, she will reject the changes. 

“The spirit of the law is the public is entitled to know what their school board is going to discuss at their meetings and this board failed to do that,” she said.

Stoldorf also said her belief that the Iowa code wasn’t followed was confirmed not only by Superintendent Terry Schmidt but by the district’s attorney. 

“Because of Schmidt saying we want to be in compliance and we have made changes and the attorney saying … we could have done a better job, the school board needs to backtrack a little and reconsider their position,” she said.

If an informal resolution can not be agreed upon by all three parties, the matter could be adjudicated in a contested case hearing.

The IPIB is scheduled to meet Thursday in Des Moines at 2 p.m. At that meeting, the IPIB is expected to review an investigation claiming probable cause exists the school board violated open meetings law during meetings on April 10 and April 14.

The investigation stems from complaints previously filed by Don Rogerson and Jedd Sherman, in which they accuse the board of discussing Sherman’s performance as high school principal in closed session, against his wishes. 

The board had previously refused to consider any informal resolution to those complaints.