Claims panel quashes school-chief settlement

The Arkansas Claims Commission unanimously rejected a settlement agreement between the state and the family of a former superintendent of the Pulaski County Special School District who was terminated in 2011.

The commission wrote in an order released Tuesday that it was not approving the $25,000 settlement because it had not been informed of previous settlements with the family of Charles Hopson and that the case would be set for a hearing “on its merits.”

The decision reversed a previous ruling by the commission, which gave preliminary approval to the settlement, pending a final written order.

“The Claims Commission, as an arm of the Arkansas General Assembly, has a responsibility to that body and to the taxpayers of the state of Arkansas to be knowledgeable of the circumstances that surround any claim it hears in order that it can be determined whether the claimant has sufficiently recovered any loss,” the commission wrote.

Aaron Sadler, a spokesman for the attorney general’s office, said in a statement, “Since the commission has rejected the settlement, we will fully litigate this matter before the commission on behalf of the Department of Education.”

Hopson, who died in October 2012 at age 54, signed a three-year contract with the district when he took the job in 2010. The contract was to run from July 1, 2010, to June 30, 2013, with an annual salary of $242,431.

The state Education Department took over the district in June 2011 and dismissed Hopson.

Hopson’s wife, Patricia, filed the claim last April, seeking $500,000.

Commission Director Norman Hodges said the commissioners put a hold on the earlier ruling after learning about other settlements with the family in a March 7 article in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

In its order, the commission wrote that it should have been informed of “any other settlements related to this matter by the legal counsels, especially by the claimant’s counsel.”

The commission noted that it had not been informed “of the existence of any recovery the claimant made from a third party,” referring to a $75,000 settlement between the family and the district, which resolved a federal court case Dec. 31.

Rickey Hicks, an attorney for Hopson’s family, said he was “incredibly disappointed” in the commission’s decision.

“It’s further drama in the Charles Hopson saga of how the state has treated this man,” Hicks said.