Marble – Cherokee County Schools leaders are under fire following a series of actions by the board and superintendent that appear to violate state law.
The Cherokee Scout sought legal advice about board agendas lacking salient details and a habit of board members to meet privately in quorum before board meetings and during committee meetings, which aren’t supposed to have a majority of school board members.
Meanwhile, Mark Kephart, chair of the Cherokee County Needs & Assessments Advisory Committee established by the board of commissioners more than a year ago, submitted a resolution to the school board calling for Superintendent Keevin Woody to be fired and Shannon Raper to be removed from her role as school board chair.
The board has been criticized by parents, citizens and county commissioners for a perceived lack of transparency. A call to Central Office on Monday to speak with Woody and Raper was not returned in time for the Scout’s deadline Tuesday.
The board met Thursday to hear parents appealing rejection of their applications for their children to attend out-of-district schools. The board met in closed session before the meeting, then called parents in family by family to hear the appeals.
“The board did hear student assignment matters in closed session. However, pursuant to federal and state confidentiality laws, the district is not permitted to disclose any student information,” board liaison Greg Chapman said in response to a request for general information about the meeting.
One parent texted the Scout following the meeting.
“I was at the meeting this morning asking for an appeal for my child,” said the parent, who did not provide a name. “I wanted to let you know that all three were denied. I have no idea if this was voted on in open session or not, as we left after our ‘meeting slot’ under the directive we would hear something by the end of the day.
“Also not sure who was for or against it but was told that the final say was left up to the principals. I now have two children in two different schools, one in Murphy and one in Andrews.”
The school district’s policy gives priority of out-of-district placement to students already enrolled in an out-of-district school, with second priority to their siblings. The decision for this family appears to have bypassed that policy.
It’s not the only policy the school board has ignored. Its policy states that the board chair and superintendent are the only personnel authorized to speak with the media, but Raper has refused to fulfill that role and Woody has said his failure to answer questions is because he doesn’t have the time.
The board’s committees, which meet at unannounced times and without published agendas, are supposed to include no more than three of the board’s seven members, because four would constitute a majority, also known as a quorum. State law requires that quorums only occur during public meetings with advance notice, agendas and that minutes be kept.
However, Raper has also attended these committee meetings, resulting in a quorum.
Also, the board voted in February to close middle schools in Martins Creek and Ranger, as well as an elementary school in Hiwassee Dam. It expanded middle schools in Hiwassee Dam to accommodate Ranger students and in Murphy to accommodate Martins Creek students.
The decision was on the board’s agenda as “Facilities,” with no further description. Parents caught off guard by the decision were furious, as were some members of the board of commissioners, which has authority over the school system’s facilities budget.
Commissioners called for a joint meeting with the school board, but it took months before the school board agreed to one at 6 p.m. Monday, Sept. 16, in the auditorium of the Enloe Building at Tri-County Community College in Peachtree. The commissioners will set a time aside for public comment, and the Scout will livestream the meeting for people who cannot attend in person. Randy Phillips, chair of the board of commissioners, said the hangup was that the school board didn’t want to allow public involvement in the meeting.
Commissioners have since evicted the schools’ Central Office from its building in Murphy, revoked sales tax proceeds amounting to about $1.2 million a year for schools and delayed approval of requested expenditures – as recently as the commissioners’ Aug. 19 meeting, when the board refused to add budget requests to the agenda because of lack of advance notice.
Legal opinion
Ashley Fox is an attorney with Raleigh-based law firm Stevens Martin Vaughn & Tadych, a law firm with expertise in North Carolina’s open meetings and open records laws. The Scout sought advice about situations occurring at Cherokee County Schools.
“Under the Open Meetings Law, an official meeting is ‘a meeting assembly, or gathering together at any time or place or the simultaneous communication by conference telephone or other electronic means of a majority of the members of a public body for the purposes of conducting hearings, participating in deliberations, or voting upon or otherwise transacting the public business within the jurisdiction, real or apparent, of the public body’ (N.C. Gen. Stat. 143-318.10(d)),” she wrote in an email.
“A public body is “any elected or appointed authority, board, commission, committee, council, or other body of the State, or of one or more counties, cities, school administrative units, constituent institutions of the University of North Carolina, or other political subdivisions or public corporations in the State that (i) is composed of two or more members and (ii) exercises or is authorized to exercise a legislative, policy-making, quasi-judicial, administrative, or advisory function (N.C. Gen. Stat. 143-318.10(b)),” she wrote.
Both the school board and the committees “(which, it sounds like, are made up of a subset of members of the Board) would be public bodies,” Fox said.
“If either a majority of the Board (four of the seven members) or a majority of any committee (two of the three official members) meets to discuss public business, then that’s a ‘meeting’ and the requirements of the OML (open meetings law) should be applicable, including public access. They should also be keeping minutes, which are then public records under the Public Records Law. So, theoretically, if they’re discussing public business in these ‘pre-meeting meetings,’ you should be able to request the minutes of what was discussed (assuming they’re actually keeping them).”
Where public bodies violate the OML, the statute allows anyone to bring a lawsuit to enjoin threatened or continued violations (N.C. Gen. Stat. 143-318.16), Fox said.
“The OML also allows you to seek nullification of whatever action was taken at the illegal meeting if a lawsuit is filed within 45 days of when that action is disclosed. (N.C. Gen. Stat. 143-16A),” she said.
Regarding concern about agendas, Fox said, “I don’t believe there are specific requirements for how detailed an agenda has to be. But, the OML does state that if a public body is taking action by referencing an agenda, it has to provide copies of the agenda at the meeting that are ‘sufficiently worded to enable the public to understand what is being deliberated, voted, or acted upon’ (N.C. Gen. Stat. 143-318.13(c)).”
Mike Tadych, a partner with Stevens Martin Vaughn & Tadych law firm, concurred with Fox’s advice, adding “it’s safe to say” that the school board is violating the open meetings law with their “pre-meeting” meetings.
Proposed resolution
Kephart is weighing in and submitted a proposed resolution for Woody and Raper to be fired.
The resolution calls for their removal “due to the cumulative neglect of duty, financial mismanagement, failure to comply with legal obligations and the erosion of trust within the community.”
The resolution recommends that assistant superintendent John Higdon, “a local individual with a full understanding of the district and community needs, could assume the position of superintendent with a small supplement, thereby saving the district significant salary costs while restoring effective leadership; as well the school board could elect a new board chair at its next called meeting.”
The resolution alleges that “the Cherokee County School superintendent and board chair have demonstrated neglectful practices that have resulted in significant financial losses, a decline in the quality of education, diminished teacher and student morale, and a failure to provide equal opportunities for all students as required under North Carolina law, including the Leandro decision.”
The resolution adds that “specific instances of financial neglect include the failure to adhere to enrollment and staff requirements, resulting in the loss of a ‘paid’ principal’s position at The Oaks Academy and a subsequent loss of over $100,000 to the local budget, which has been misleadingly presented to the public as a cost-saving measure.”
The resolution says the superintendent and board chair’s inability to maintain a cooperative relationship with county commissioners led to the Central Office’s eviction, “costing an estimated $80,000 for the renovation of the Marble School as a temporary location, causing embarrassment and making the school system the subject of ridicule.”
The resolution says the superintendent allowed a $62 million grant, which had been funded and could have been utilized with existing district funds, to be returned without any attempt to formulate a plan for its use, thereby neglecting the district’s financial and educational responsibilities.
The resolution alleges that exceptional needs students did not receive the legally required appropriate education during the 2023-24 school year, forcing the district to incur additional costs for summer school, while failing to comply with federal law and budget regulations.
In addition, “the superintendent demanded a salary increase of over $40,000, placing an undue burden on the local tax budget, and has neglected to engage with faculty and staff in a meaningful way, leading to a disconnection within the school community.” Also, “the enforcement of an out-of-district policy at the elementary level only, without similar enforcement at the middle and high school levels, has led to overcrowded classrooms at Murphy High School and Murphy Middle School while leaving other schools underpopulated, undermining the best practices for class sizes and contributing to inequities within the district.”
“The superintendent and board chair have failed to respond to multiple communications from concerned parents and community members regarding important issues such as school safety, indicating a neglect of duty and a disregard for community engagement,” the resolution says.
“The district has experienced a significant loss of students and families to neighboring counties and states, with these concerns being voiced publicly without any response or action from the superintendent,” the resolution says.
Also, “the superintendent and board chair have not complied with the state law requiring a current plan for the improvement or replacement of facilities and curriculum programs, with no steps taken towards fulfilling this obligation during the two years of his tenure.”
Also, “the superintendent and board chair have repeatedly violated North Carolina Open Meetings Law, including attending meetings without proper notice and creating a quorum in committee meetings, as well as interfering in the hiring process in a manner that violates personnel laws.”
The superintendent and board chairs “lack of involvement in key issues and his failure to produce any tangible documentation of perceived benefits from school mergers have further eroded public confidence in his leadership,” the resolution says alleges. “The district’s once-esteemed reputation as one of the highest performing in the state has been severely damaged, making Cherokee County Schools a political laughingstock.”