PEMBROKE — The Robeson County school board is apparently confused about its own transparency policies and the North Carolina Open Meetings Law.
The board violated a court order when it voted, 6-4, on Jan. 10 to fire former Superintendent Tommy Lowry and hire Dr. Thomas Graves, an education consultant in Virginia. Superior Court Judge Jack Hooks had issued a temporary restraining order telling board members to halt the process.
The board faces a lawsuit, filed in Superior Court in Robeson County, alleging members colluded outside public meetings to hire Graves. The move violates open meetings laws, the lawsuit says, as any gathering among a majority of board members must be opened to the public.
“We believe they were acting outside their capacity as board members,” lead attorney Gary Locklear told the The Robesonian.
According to the school board’s policy manual, job openings must be publicly advertised before a new hire can be made. Graves’ installment as superintendent came immediately after the board decided to fire Lowry.
“We were asked by a number of parents in Robeson County with children in the public schools to do what we could to slow down this action of bringing in a superintendent no one knows nothing about,” said Locklear, according to The Fayetteville Observer.
Hooks’ restraining order focused on the financial consequences of the decision. If carried out, Graves’ hiring would have cost taxpayers between $460,000 and $690,000 in salary over the next 18 months. Of that amount, $180,000 would have been used to buy out Lowry’s contract.
The judge pointed to a lack of transparency and breaches of trust among school employees and the board.
The six members who voted in favor of hiring Graves were: Dwayne Smith, Randy Lawson, Brian Freeman, Peggy Wilkins-Chavis, Steve Martin and Charles Bullard. All are named individually in the lawsuit and accused of taking action outside official meetings.
They are ineligible for representation under official board attorney Grady Hunt and must pay for their own lawyers.
In an emergency meeting Tuesday, the board unanimously rescinded the offer to Graves, who did not sign an employment contract before the decision.
Board member Charles Bullard, who made the motion to withdraw the Graves’ job offer, called the violation an oversight.
“It was just a mistake we had overlooked at the last meeting,” Bullard said. “We just wanted to correct it. It was improper what we did at the meeting. We didn’t know it at the time, so we had to come back and straighten it out.”
Some of the body’s officials say they are baffled and that they didn’t know what they were doing.
Bullard went to Facebook to say he thought he was voting to make Graves interim superintendent. Another member, Brian Freeman, claimed he didn’t know the job opening must be publicly advertised, per board policy.
The board will again discuss the superintendent position in February, though it will be tough to find a full-time replacement during the current school year, said John Campbell, another board member who has openly opposed the board’s illegal proceedings.
Kari Travis covers K-12, higher education, and local government issues across North Carolina. Follow her on Twitter @karilynntravis, or email her at [email protected]. Robesonian reporter Mike Gellatly assisted with this story. Follow him on Twitter @MikeGellatly.