LITTLE ROCK — A hastily-called meeting of the Pulaski County Special School Board on Thursday opened with an undercurrent of hostility between the current and former board president.
But it ended less than an hour later without members taking any action or saying a word about what happened during the closed session.
"We decided we won't discuss anything with anybody," Board President Tim Clark said as he left the district offices on Dixon Road. "We can't."
Clark said in a telephone interview early Thursday that he called the impromptu meeting after learning that fellow board member Mildred Tatum sent reporters copies of letters she'd sent the superintendent and the state Department of Education.
"It's something we had to take care of immediately before it festered out of control," Clark said.
He said he felt Tatum's letters, which were in response to the suspension last week of Mills University Studies High Principal Michael Nellums,were "inappropriate" and could get the board sued.
"I called the meeting to put a stop to any further behavior on behalf of any board member that would place the board in jeopardy," he said. "We need to stay completely out of it."
Clark was among four board members who voted in January to remove then-president Tatum, a board member for 26 years, from her post as leader of the elected body. He replaced her immediately as president.
As Tatum walked into the meeting Thursday evening, she was asked whether she was the subject of the executive session.
"I don't know," she said, shrugging her shoulders.
Clark said the board chose to discuss the matter in executive session rather than a public meeting because it dealt with a disciplinary issue related to Tatum.
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette objected to the closed session, questioning whether a board of elected officials could "discipline" a fellow elected official.
Clark - and later a private attorney he consulted on the matter - cited Arkansas Code Annotated 25-19-106 (c) (1), a section in the Freedom of Information Act, that says: "Executive sessions will be permitted only for the purpose of considering employment, appointment, promotion, demotion, disciplining or resignation of any public officer or employee."
The newspaper asked Clark and Little Rock attorney Paul Blume to cite a law or board policy that allows elected board members to discipline other elected board members.
Both referred to the law above.
In a May 2000 opinion, then-Arkansas Attorney General Mark Pryor was asked whether a quorum court of a county could meet in executive session to discuss another elected official.
"Clearly, a quorum court cannot call an executive session, i.e., closed session, simply to generallydiscuss other elected officials," the nonbinding opinion said.
It went on to cite the same section of the Freedom of Information Act that Clark and Blume mentioned, but added that an appointment to fill a vacancy of an elective office or to discuss the resignation of an elected official seemed to be the only reasons to discuss an elected official in executive session.
"I am uncertain, however, whether an executive session would be permissible in connection with any other matter pertaining to an elected official. The quorum court typically does not employ, appoint, promote, demote, discipline, or dismiss any elected officials."
In addition to the disciplinary matter, Clark said he also wanted to meet in private because the discussion "might bleed over to the personnel issue."
The personnel issue involved Nellums.
Superintendent Robert McGill confirmed before the meeting that that Nellums, a 24-year district employee, was suspended Friday "for an investigation. That's all I can say."
Nellums is on paid leave pending the outcome of the investigation, McGill said. Kathleen Crumby is the acting principal.
Tatum's Aug. 26 letter to Mc-Gill says that she received approximately 50 calls from taxpayers and teachers who were "unhappy about what they described as 'unfounded allegations'" against Nellums.
Tatum complained in the letter that McGill's failure to notify her of the suspension "is a gross neglect of duty as defined by Board Policy." She also accused McGill of having a "personal vendetta" against Nellums.
"I'm going to take the extraordinary step of asking the board to investigate your conduct in this matter," Tatum wrote.
After the meeting, McGill declined to discuss Tatum's letter.
Tatum, meanwhile, declined to discuss Clark's complaints about her letter.
"Whatever he thinks," she said with a smile. "Everybody's subject to their own opinion."
Arkansas, Pages 11, 17 on 08/28/2009