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Schools

San Juan Watchdog Says School District Broke Open-Meeting Law

The Capistrano Unified School District could face a lawsuit over the way it approved restoration of instructional days and teacher salary increase.

A San Juan Capistrano resident is demanding the board of trustees rescind its decisions to and  because, he contends, they were decisions made illegally behind closed doors.

Jim Reardon’s lawyer, Wayne Tate, faxed a letter to the school district Monday afternoon, demanding it acknowledge it violated the state's open-meeting laws. The letter gives the district 30 days to do so or face a lawsuit.

“These trustees have the obligation to run the district responsibly,” said Reardon, a longtime city and school district watchdog. “They need to be accountable in front of the public for the decisions they make.”

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The school board's decisions to approve the restorations did not appear on agendas. According to Tate’s letter, the board must have taken action at either the Dec. 7 or Dec. 13 meeting, because during the Jan. 11 meeting, both a staff report and Superintendent Joseph Farley mentioned action being taken.

The Ralph M. Brown Act is the state law that requires publicly elected officials to do the people’s business openly. Items that require a vote must be published 72 hours before a meeting. While some items may appear in closed session, the agenda for closed sessions must be made public, and the publicly available minutes must include any votes taken.

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District spokesman Marcus Walton said he hadn’t seen Reardon’s letter, which could be a precursor to a lawsuit. “But I’m confident that no violation of the Brown Act occurred regarding this item.”

Walton has said that the staff report referring to action taken Dec. 13 was an error. At the Feb. 22 school board meeting, Farley said he had heard of Brown Act allegations and looked into them. "There have been no violations of the Brown Act," he told trustees. "I will put that into writing."

Although Reardon has asked the district to rescind the restoration of the school days and teachers’ salaries, the school board could choose to put those items on an agenda and take a vote. “They have every right to do it—just do it in public,” Reardon said.

Déjà vu

“I didn’t do this with the greatest of glee,” Tate said. “Candidly, it’s sad we’re here after everything that happened with Brown Act violations” in the past.

Tate was referring to a 60-page report District Attorney Tony Ruckaukas released in October 2007, which spelled out 13 Brown Act violations. Among them was a complaint that the then-trustees included items that should have been on a regular agenda as part of the superintendent’s annual performance review.

A performance review of Farley was scheduled on the closed session agenda Dec. 13.

“I’m having a serious déjà vu moment,” said Jennifer Beall, another longtime school board watchdog. “It’s the [former Superintendent James] Fleming era all over again, and it’s a nightmare. We don’t want this. We just want transparency.”

Reardon said he finds the timing of the restoration of concessions curious. The district endured where two trustees were recalled by the voters in favor of what appeared to be teacher-backed candidates.

The campaigned on transparency, Reardon said. Now’s the time to show they mean it.

Tate said Reardon is not seeking any monetary damages, although he may pursue attorney's fees if it comes to a lawsuit. Reardon just wants the district to follow proper procedure, Tate said.

Rescinding restoration of the two days may call for some creativity, Reardon said. One of those days, Feb. 17, has already come and gone.

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