Aliyya Swaby Photo
Sedor Tuesday night with Jason Bartlett, mayor’s liaison to the Board of Ed.
The Board of Education and Board of Alders, engaged in a legal battle, are negotiating an out of-court settlement — the details of which district officials discussed Monday evening in a closed-door meeting without a quorum before a scheduled special public meeting.
Lawyers on both sides submitted a request for a continuance of the case from March 2 to March 16 late Tuesday afternoon, on the eve of a Wednesday morning planned hearing at Superior Court. The parties reported that they are close to a deal to settle the case out of court.
Superintendent Garth Harries said the continuance reflects the fact that “the parties are talking.” Alders pushed the first hearing date from Feb. 17 to March 1. But the continuance for Wednesday’s hearing “was a joint request,” he said. “A discussion is going on that meant it didn’t make sense to take time to have the legal argument continue tomorrow.”
The Board of Ed held a special meeting Tuesday night at 5 p.m. at 54 Meadow St. in the superintendent’s conference room, in part to discuss the status of the pending court case.
Click here to read the file for a continuance.
The Board of Alders filed suit against the Board of Education, asking a Superior Court judge for an injunction preventing them from continuing to seat an eighth member, Daisy Gonzalez, since the new city charter calls for seven ed board members. Alders hired criminal defense attorney Norm Pattis at a rate of about $250 an hour.
The Board of Ed hired Stephen Sedor, of firm Pullman and Comley, who was present at Tuesday night’s special meeting.
Members Michael Nast, Ed Joyner, Alicia Caraballo and Darnell Goldson were present at the meeting just after 5 p.m. Five members are needed to reach a quorum. They debated with Chief Operating Officer Will Clark how to discuss the legal matters at hand with Sedor — without a quorum and without the public present. Without a quorum, they are not allowed to go into executive session.
Member Carlos Torre was on the way to the meeting.
Those present then held a closed-door meeting in Superintendent Harries’ office until Torre arrived.
Door of closed-door session opens.
Clark said that without a quorum, the gathering didn’t constitute a public meeting. Non-voting student members Kimberly Sullivan and Coral Ortiz — not included in the member count and also not allowed to be in executive session — joined the four members in the closed-door meeting.
Top district officials arriving after the door closed were surprised by the board’s decision.
“Did they go into executive session?” said Gemma Joseph Lumpkin, district chief of youth, family and community engagement.
Torre arrives.
Torre arrived just before 5:30 p.m. When asked whether board members made a good decision in holding a closed-door meeting, he said, “Sometimes you have to be creative without violating the law. Boards do it all the time.”
The Board of Ed voted to keep Gonzalez on the board for a “transition year” in 2016 until two other members’ terms run out. City Corporation Counsel John Rose argued on behalf on the ed board that alders do not have the authority to rescind Gonzalez’s appointment, because the ed board is created by the state.
“The only control that the Board of Alders has is how much money you give, and to some extent, how many people can be on the board,” he said. “You cannot remove Daisy Gonzalez from the Board of Education.”