Published: August 18, 2008 03:36 pm         

SCHOOLS IN CRISIS: County mayor files suit, injunction against school board

Suit requests chancellor to order BOE to resume original 2008-'09 school year calendar immediately

For the full text and exhibits associated with Cumberland County Mayor Brock Hill's lawsuit against the County Board of Education, click the links to the right.

Cumberland County Mayor Brock Hill has filed a lawsuit in Chancery Court and a motion for injunction against the Cumberland County Board of Education.

Hill alleges that the special-called meeting the Cumberland County Board of Education held August 8, 2008 was in violation of Tennessee Code Annotated (TCA) 8-44-101 et. seq. (The Sunshine Law) and is therefore improper and illegal without adequate public notice, according to the suit that was filed Thursday, Aug. 14, at 2:20 p.m. by county attorney James E. Thompson.

The suit alleges the special-called meeting was called by the Cumberland County Director of Schools and not the chairman of the BOE. This meeting was the meeting in which the BOE made the decision to postpone the opening of Cumberland County schools for the 2008-'09 school year.

"The Board of Education did not violate any aspect of the Tennessee Open Meetings Law. The BOE was within its rights and had a right to take the action it took at the Aug. 8, 2008 special-called meeting," said Earl Patton, Cumberland County Board of Education attorney.

Hill's complaint states, "Plaintiff (Hill) alleges and intends to prove the defendant’s special-called meeting held on August 8, 2008 at 7 p.m. did not provide adequate notice under the statute to the public as to what the defendant intended to do, i.e. close the schools within sixty (60) hours of the meeting. That there was no financial emergency to the issue since the defendant had money in their accounts with which to properly operate. Plaintiff alleges due to the inadequate notice of such an important matter such as this, as well as the draconian action actually taken at the Aug. 8 meeting by the defendant, the defendants did not give adequate notice under the circumstances of its meeting and therefore said meeting and its actions violated the Sun Shine law.

"Plaintiff further alleges and intends to prove that said meeting was therefore illegal, and all deliberations, discussions, and decisions pursuant to said special-called meeting are void and of no effect since adequate public notice under the circumstances was not given to the public of defendant’s intentions to deliberate upon and decide such an important decision; especially given the fact that this decision impacts almost every citizen of the county in some form or fashion.

In the suit, Hill also alleges that the action of that meeting the students and citizens of Cumberland County have been irreparably harmed."

The suit and motion for injunction also seeks the Cumberland County Board of Education to "revert to its previously and lawfully established school calendar and begin the 2008 school term immediately."

Cumberland County Mayor Brock Hill said he would not comment on pending litigation but did say the "suit speaks for itself and is self explanatory."

Schools were scheduled to open Aug. 11.

The suit states, "The Cumberland County Commission (Commission) is the funding body for Cumberland County. The defendant (BOE) has no authority to spend or accept money unless and until it has a budget approved by the Commission. The defendant is statutorily obligated on or before forty-five (45) days before July 1 of each calendar year to produce and give to the Commission for its deliberations a budget of revenue and expenditures of the defendant for the upcoming fiscal year. Cumberland County’s fiscal year runs from July 1 to June 30 of each year.

"The Commission did not receive the proposed budgets from its various departments in time for it to adopt an ‘08-‘09 fiscal year budget in its July meeting. Due to this delay, the Commission saw it would not have the necessary documents in time for it to prepare a proper budget. Due to this lack of information, and pursuant to statute, the Commission adopted a continuing budget resolution at its June 2008 regular meeting that allowed each of the county’s departments, including the Defendant, to operate pursuant to their 2007-'08 fiscal year budget until an 2008-'09 fiscal year budget could be set."

Hill also alleges in the suit that students are losing valuable instructional time, loss of money by parents because of day care issues and the loss of wages to hourly non-certified school system employees as reason for the injunction it seeks.

Also mentioned in the suit is the loss of money due to fines for forfeiting previously scheduled athletic events and funding from the state for match of funds for average daily attendance in schools.

In Thompson's motion for injunction he states this is the first application for extraordinary process (a time-sensative urgency) in the matter and writes, "Please take notice I will ask the court to issue the above injunction at a hearing on Aug. 22, 2008 at 9 a.m. in court's chambers in Cookveille, TN."

As of press time Monday, a spokesperson from the Chancellor's office could not confirm weather the hearing had been set for that time.

The BOE is scheduled to hold a special-called meeting Monday night at 6 p.m. at the Central Office in the board room. The public is welcome to attend.