Judge tells Douglas County school board majority to stop one-on-one meetings of district business
A judge on Wednesday ordered the four majority members of Douglas County School District’s Board of Education to follow Colorado’s open meetings laws, including prohibiting them from having one-on-one meetings to discuss district business privately.
The preliminary injunction, issued by Douglas County District Judge Jeffrey Holmes, comes after a Highlands Ranch resident filed a lawsuit against the school board members, alleging they violated state statute by holding a series of one-on-one meetings in late January to discuss replacing former Superintendent Corey Wise.
“Circumventing the statute by a series of private one-on-one meetings at which public business is discussed and/or decisions reached is a violation of the purpose of the statute, not just its spirit,” Holmes wrote in his order.
Robert Marshall filed the lawsuit against the directors — Mike Peterson, Christy Williams, Becky Myers and Kaylee Winegar — after the board’s three minority directors claimed their colleagues violated the state’s open meeting law in their efforts to fire Wise.
Wise was told that if he did not resign “four members of the (Board of Education) had already collectively decided” to terminate his contract, according to the motion for a preliminary injunction.
Wise was terminated without cause in a public meeting on Feb. 4, a decision that drew protests by hundreds of the district’s roughly 63,000 students. The board was divided in the decision, voting 4-3 to fire Wise two years before his contract expired.
“The evidence indicates that four members of the board collectively committed, outside of public meetings, to the termination of Wise’s employment,” Holmes wrote in the injunction. “The fact that no public comment was permitted at the February 4th meeting is additional evidence of the (four board members’) commitment to their course of action.”
The injunction does not nullify the board members’ decision to terminate Wise; that decision has not yet been decided by the court.
Paula Hans, a spokeswoman for the Douglas County School District, declined to comment. An attorney for the four board members targeted in the lawsuit did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.
“I hope it will send a message that you have to follow the law, basically, and not try to circumvent it,” Marshall said.
Under the state’s open-meeting law, if at least three school board members meet to discuss public business, then the public and other board members must be notified and the meeting made public. This includes if it is a meeting in person, by phone, email or text.
During a hearing held last month, attorney Steve Zansberg argued that the four directors held a series of one-on-one phone calls to purposely not trigger the open-meeting law when deciding Wise’s future.
“It’s gratifying…that the judge understood that these types of efforts to evade the open records law can not be condoned,” Zansberg said Wednesday.
Jeff Roberts, executive director of the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition, said Holmes’ decision is “potentially pretty important for the strength of Colorado’s open meeting law.”
“We haven’t had any rulings like this in Colorado before,” he said.
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