In a board meeting stretching past 1:00 a.m. on Dec. 9, 2024, the GPPSS School Board voted six to zero to allow board members to view a previously withheld report. The report was the result of a third party law firm’s independent investigation regarding a Human Resources (HR) report filed by two North administrators in late August 2023. This vote reverses the board’s March four to two vote to withhold the report from board members as well as the public, waiving attorney client privilege.
This comes after months of community members calling for a release of the report to the public. Although it is unclear what is in the full 27 page report, the board has previously announced that eight people were interviewed for the investigation conducted by Lawyer Kevin Sutton of the Miller Johnson Law Firm.
The Dec. 9, 2024 meeting was the outgoing board’s final meeting, meaning this was Vice President Ahmed Ismail’s, who the investigation surrounded, last meeting. Ismail asked to add the motion to the agenda on the day of the meeting.
“I want the board to understand exactly what is in there,” Ismail said during the meeting. “I have been maligned, I have been slammed in public without having a chance to defend myself and frankly I want the board to know if it is okay to release this or not, what is the danger of releasing this and if the attorney says there will be liability issues, then the board can make that decision to not release it.”
Throughout March and April, The Tower filed multiple FOIA requests attempting to obtain the full report but were denied by the district and the board after filing an appeal. The board had claimed attorney client privilege on the document.
The vote for the board to review the report sparked confusion, with Trustee Valerie St. John questioning the motives of some board members.
“Why did you vote against allowing the rest of the trustees to read it, and now you have changed your mind?” St. John said to other trustees during the meeting.
Since the public has been made aware of the report’s existence, community members have pushed the board to release it, with lawn signs popping up around the community reading “release the report”.
“For me, I have never believed that the privilege should be waived and that the privilege should go to the public especially without the trustees reviewing it,” Board President Sean Cotton said. “My vote has always relied on our legal council of Miller Canfield saying that their legal opinion was that it should not be released to the public.”
At this time, it is unclear when the board will review the report.
