Statement regarding Public Access Counselor (PAC) Advisory Opinion 19-FC-10.

This statement is provided on behalf of the Eastern Greene School Corporation (Eastern Greene)
regarding the Advisory Opinion of Public Access Counselor Luke Britt.
Eastern Greene acknowledges the PAC opinion on executive session notices and agrees to
include the entire statutory language of items appropriate for discussion at an executive session of the
Eastern Greene School Board in all future executive session notices.
Eastern Greene also acknowledges the PAC Advisory Opinion that “Eastern Greene did not
violate the Open Door Law by adding a personnel item to approve the hiring of a new baseball coach to
the agenda of its regular meeting on January 14, 2019."
Finally, Eastern Greene respectfully disagrees with the PAC Advisory Opinion that “the totality
of the circumstances indicate something akin to of final action occurred outside of a public meeting as it
relates to the non-renewal of both the varsity football coach and athletic director's contracts, and
consolidating the two positions into one. . . .Although the expiration of the contract does not require a
prior action – – nor is it a termination or discharge. . . .”
As the PAC states, there was no final action taken on the contracts as those contracts, even to
this day, are still in place and do not expire until August 2019. Additionally, at the February Board
meeting, where the expiration dates of the two contracts were included in the personnel report,
acceptance of that personnel report was approved in a public meeting. Additionally, at the February
meeting motions were made and discussion was held in a public meeting to add to the agenda
discussion on the football and AD contracts for the purpose of considering extending those contracts. At
a public meeting a vote was taken and the majority vote was not to add these items to the agenda.
The PAC decision that did not find a final action taken in a private meeting but rather instead
found “something akin to a final action” on an alleged non-renewal of contracts that do not expire until
August 2019, is based, at least in part, on a separate response filed by three minority Board
members. Neither Eastern Greene nor its counsel have ever seen this “minority” response as neither
the Superintendent, other Board members, nor counsel were or have been provided a copy of this
response. Consequently, Eastern Greene cannot comment on its contents.
Eastern Greene is also troubled by the inclusion of the unseen response of three Board
members as it was not authorized by Eastern Greene and according to the Advisory Opinion it was not
filed with the PAC until February 21. It was nevertheless accepted and Eastern Greene was never made
aware it had been filed nor given a chance to respond to this response. It is also troubling because this
“other response” was accepted despite the PAC Notice of Formal complaint containing the following
language that was bolded in the January 25 letter from the PAC to Eastern Greene. The verbatim bolded
language read as follows: “Therefore, the Board's answer to the formal complaint allegations must be
received by this office no later than February 19, 2019.” (The bold emphasis is in the original letter, the
underlining was not in the original but has been added) In fact, the Eastern Greene response was filed
on February 18, 2019.
Eastern Greene respects the advisory opinions of the PAC, but respectfully disagrees on the
matter of the contracts of the football coach and Athletic Director.
Eastern Greene will continue to operate in the best interests of its students, faculty and staff
and members of the Eastern Greene community. Eastern Greene will take the advisory Opinion to heart
and strive to always act in the best interest of the above constituents and in full and complete
compliance with the Indiana Open Door laws. The Opinion will be carefully reviewed and respected and
will provide a teachable lesson for Eastern Greene. Additionally, the Eastern Greene Board will be
working closely with the Indiana School Board Association to obtain continued training and insight as to
the Board role in school governance in full compliance with their duties and legal obligations.