Did school board take secret vote?

MODOC – Was school board member Christa Ellis acting unilaterally when she suspended Union School Corp. Superintendent Fred Herron on Monday?

Or had she obtained the consent of new board members Christina Ogden and Teresia Green before suspending him?

If it was the latter, her actions would have violated the Open Door Law, says Indiana Public Access Counselor Luke Britt.

"If she needed authorization or ratification from the other two and got their consent, to me that amounts to a secret ballot and a secret vote, a violation of the Open Door Law," Britt told The Star Press on Thursday. "If she had the authority to do that unilaterally and was just advising them that she was going to do that, then it was just a heads up."

Britt added he doesn't know whether the bylaws of the school corporation or the school board or any other laws authorized Ellis to act unilaterally.

One thing is certain: She acted without the knowledge of the two male members of the board, Alan McCormick and Garth Jenkins, who resigned in protest during the middle of the school board's meeting on Tuesday night.

Asked in an interview on Thursday whether she had sought Ogden's and Green's consent before suspending Herron or had just informed them that she was going to suspend him, Ellis said, "I don't know what I was doing from a legal standpoint."

But she added that she was acting on the advice of Susan Traynor Chastain, a veteran education lawyer from Indianapolis and the board's new attorney.

The underlying issue causing board friction is whether or not to close Union, one of the smallest school districts in the state, with K-12 enrollment of only 314. According to a Ball State University study published in February of 2014, only seven of Indiana's nearly 300 school corporations have enrollments of less than 500.

Ellis, along with Ogden and Green, both of whom were elected to the school board last November, are determined to save Union from consolidation.

The Ball State study cited research that small school corporations are less efficient in educating students than larger corporations. "The implication of this finding is that smaller school corporations could boost efficiency (reduce cost per student educated) by merging to form larger corporations," the university reported.

At the direction of the old school board, Herron last year appointed a community advisory committee that was stopped by the new majority of the board from presenting its findings at Tuesday night's school board meeting. Ogden called the committee biased.

However, Ellis says the board agreed to hear the committee's findings at a meeting next month. A report prepared by the committee recommends that Union join either the Winchester or Monroe Central school district. Union's enrollment is declining and its general fund deficit is growing.

Ellis told The Star Press she is an Open Door Law advocate who, as board member, revealed to the public last year that the school board had been discussing consolidation in executive session without notice to the public. "I outed that," she said.

She also said that she had only one-on-one conversations, mostly by telephone, with Ogden and Green before suspending Herron.

"We did not meet in any kind of executive session," she said. "We did not meet. We have followed the Open Door Law in our contact with one another. From the time of their election, Christie, Teresia and I did not meet at any time prior to the meeting Tuesday night."

The three even have been careful to avoid sitting close to each other at Union ball games. "When we all ended up in the hospitality room at the county tourney one weekend ... Teresia went to sit at another table because we did not want to even accidentally violate the Open Door Law," Ellis said. "We are allowed to speak to each other or meet with each other one-on-one."

The three voted to suspend Herron at Tuesday night's meeting after Ogden and Green were sworn into office. But if a secret vote had been taken before the public meeting to suspend the superintendent, the vote at the public meeting "just covered their tracks," Britt said. "The damage had already been done."

Ellis was elected board president at the Tuesday night meeting. The day before, she hand delivered a letter to Herron placing him on paid administrative leave. The letter was signed by Ellis as board secretary, though she said it was written by Traynor Chastain.

At the board meeting attended by dozens of school patrons, many of whom became angry, Ellis dispelled a rumor that she had escorted Herron out of the building.

The letter said the superintendent was being suspended "based upon concerns about your conduct which may constitute grounds for discharge ... During the administrative leave ... you are not to report to work or contact any school corporation staff members during school hours except through me. If you need to come to the school corporation property for any reason, you are directed to make arrangements with me in advance."

During a special, early morning meeting in December, the old board voted to extend the superintendent's contract for two years. Herron is employed under a teacher's contract with a superintendent's addendum but wasn't actually teaching.

The fact he is employed under a teacher's contract could come into play in terms of whether Ellis had unilateral authority to suspend him.

Contact Seth Slabaugh at (765) 213-5834.