Fort Smith School Board President addresses lawsuits, defends superintendent pay

Sebastian County Circuit Court Judge Steve Tabor ruled on Monday (Jan. 23) against the Fort Smith School Board’s motion to dismiss pending litigation charging it violated Freedom of Information (FOI) laws in discussing the election of board officials.

Fort Smith School Board President Dr. Deanie Mehl addressed the ruling along with McCutchen’s prior lawsuit stemming from the previous Board’s decision to retire the Southside High School Rebels mascot at the tail end of Monday night’s meeting. Mehl said the school district’s attorney has contacted McCutchen to see if his Dec. 22 proposal to dismiss contingent on a signed admission of guilt was still on the table, but “we have not received any formal notification from him.”

“I have several members of the Board, who are saying, ‘We will not sign anything that acknowledges wrongdoing.’ It is my personal feeling that (McCutchen’s) proposals – his demands – amount to us pleading guilty to a crime that we were not charged with. But again, we will wait to hear back from Mr. McCutchen. If the proposal is still on the table, we will meet as a committee to discuss it and decide whether or not to reject it or accept. But at this time we will be going ahead with the trial,” Mehl said.

McCutchen presented his proposal to the Board at 4 p.m. on Dec. 22, shortly before a four-day holiday break, “making it virtually impossible for the entire Board to consider,” Mehl said.

She continued: “The deadline was the day we got back at 5 p.m. It takes us 48 hours in terms of contacting everyone and notifying the press. We met on Dec. 29. At that time a motion to reject the plaintiff’s proposal was made and seconded and it was later tabled because some Board members felt we did not have enough time to consider it.”

From there, the Board thought about bringing the matter to its Jan. 18 committee of the whole meeting. Due to a “full agenda,” Mehl said, she and Acting Superintendent Dr. Gordon Floyd decided to stage the discussion for Jan. 17, but Tabor “had scheduled a hearing to consider whether or not to approve our motion to dismiss and obviously it was premature for us to discuss this proposal from the plaintiffs’ attorney until we knew whether or not the lawsuit was going to be dismissed.”

McCutchen’s previous lawsuit was filed against the Board in August 2015 after the vote was taken to retire the Southside mascot. The lawsuit concerned a FOI violation that allegedly occurred at a June 23 committee of the whole meeting.

“State statutes on committee meetings is very clear. It is not ambiguous. We are required by law to notify the public that we will meet. We are not required to give an agenda,” Mehl said of the previous complaint, adding the reasoning behind the statute is “because we need to be free to bring things to committee as they come before us, whether it’s constituents or things we’ve heard on campuses.”

Sebastian County Circuit Court Judge James Cox dismissed McMutchen’s lawsuit, after which McCutchen appealed the case to the Supreme Court. Mehl clarified to the public at Monday’s meeting that regardless of whether Cox’s decision is overturned, it is not true that such a decision would change the retirement of the Rebels mascot. Mehl called it “truly tragic” there are some who still believe if Judge Cox’s ruling is overturned by the Supreme Court it will invalidate the vote to overturn the Southside mascot thus paving the way for a Rebels return.

Mehl said the lawsuit before the Supreme Court pertains solely to the June 23 committee meeting, “and as I said, the press and public were notified before that meeting had taken place,” while the Southside Rebels mascot “was retired five weeks later on July 27.”

Mehl continued: “The public had five weeks’ notice. We re-staged the room to maximize people and we had 200 people in addition to the Board and administration and school officials. That night we also suspended our policy so that anyone who wanted to address the Board had three minutes to comment, and we had 39 people address us. And what was shocking to me, was that from those 39 people, 25 supported the change. Basically two-thirds of the people that night supported the change.”

Mehl added there was never any question of a FOI violation for the July 27 meeting, so whether the Supreme Court rules against Judge Cox’s decision, it will have no effect on Southside’s mascot.

“I want that to be crystal clear,” Mehl said. “To me, it’s somewhat ironic that someone who preaches at this Board about transparency would perpetuate the false impression that if Judge Cox’s ruling is overturned the Southside mascot will be returned to the Rebels.”

Also Monday, Mehl defended the Board’s decision to continue paying Dr. Floyd at the full superintendent salary while new Fort Smith Superintendent Dr. Doug Brubaker eases into the position. Mehl said when former Superintendent Dr. Benny Golden retired in April 2016, Floyd essentially took on the duties of Assistant Superintendent and Superintendent for the Superintendent salary, “so we are actually $70,000 ahead because of his dedication.”