The Burlington Times-News sued Alamance-Burlington School System in October seeking copies of closed-session meeting minutes related to the departure of Superintendent Lillie Cox. Special Superior Court Judge Lucy Inman ruled this week that the records can be withheld, and the newspaper said it would appeal.
The Alamance-Burlington School System Board of Education held a series of closed-session meetings earlier this year to discuss Superintendent Lillie Cox, the Burlington Times-News reports. The board also requested school attorneys to conduct an investigation of Cox. After the last meeting in May, Cox resigned and little explanation was given for her sudden departure. The school board agreed to pay her $200,000 in severance.
The newspaper then requested the minutes from the closed sessions during which the school board had discussed Cox. Closed-session minutes are public records subject to disclosure under the N.C. Public Records Act. The N.C. Open Meetings Law allows them to be withheld so long as disclosure would not “frustrate the purpose” of the closed session.
In October the Times-News sued the school system because it was withholding unredacted copies of the minutes. After a hearing earlier this month, Special Superior Court Judge Lucy Inman ruled that the minutes are “not public records subject to disclosure under the Public Records Act,” and dismissed the case. The newspaper’s attorney, John Bussian, said that the newspaper would appeal the decision to the N.C. Court of Appeals.
Inman was recently elected to the Court of Appeals, where she’ll begin serving next month. She would have to recuse herself from hearing the newspaper’s appeal.
Shortly after the Times-News filed its lawsuit, a nearly identical situation cropped up in Charlotte when Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Superintendent Heath Morrison resigned suddenly following an investigation by the school board there. That school board has also provided little information to the public about the superintendant’s departure. In response to the situation in Charlotte, Gov. Pat McCrory said that the state’s personnel laws need to be changed to allow for greater disclosure and the Charlotte Observer called for a change in the school board employee law to require certain disclosures when high-level employees resign or are fired.
Read the Times-News coverage here.