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Nearly eight months after appointing a new board member to a vacant seat, a southern Colorado school board must redo the pick to comply with two court decisions in a case over open meetings law violations.
The Pueblo School District 70 school board, which has been awash in controversy after last year allowing a “public Christian school” to open within its boundaries, will discuss the process for selecting a fifth member at Tuesday’s meeting, according to the agenda.
A district court judge in August ruled the appointment of Susie Carnes, who had been serving as the board’s fifth member since February, invalid because it wasn’t done publicly. The school board appealed, but in late September a three-judge state appeals court panel declined to pause the ruling while the appeal moves forward.
The school board’s do-over pick could change the board’s leanings and the trajectory of district decision-making. Carnes, who was part of a 3-2 conservative majority, could again be selected. But if a different candidate fills the seat, it’s possible the board could drop the open meetings lawsuit appeal.
The lawsuit was brought by three school board candidates who were not selected during the February appointment process. Besides its own legal costs, the district may have to pay the plaintiffs’ attorney fees — nearly $75,000 as of Sept. 1, according to court records.
The court rulings and the mandate to reappoint a fifth member represent a rebuttal to School Board President Ann Bennett, who appointed Carnes to the vacant seat via email in February. She did so six days after breaking quorum at a board meeting when she faced the possibility that a board candidate she didn’t support could be appointed. She left the meeting unannounced, which prevented an appointment from happening then.
Under state law, school board presidents can appoint a member if the board can’t agree on a candidate after 60 days. Before the Pueblo 70 board member became ill, the board had deadlocked on picking a candidate in numerous 2-2 votes.
But Pueblo District Court Judge Michelle Chostner in her August ruling said Bennett’s appointment of Carnes broke the law because it was done over email with no public notice.
“The appointment was done in secret: precisely the type of formal action the (Colorado Open Meetings Law) prohibits,” Chostner wrote.
Carnes’ photo and bio is no longer on the district’s school board web page.
Ann Schimke is a senior reporter at Chalkbeat. Contact Ann at aschimke@chalkbeat.org.
