Douglas County School Board turns down open meeting lawsuit settlement

The four Douglas County School District board members who have been front and center through controversy since being elected in November 2022 all pulled out of a decision to accept a settlement agreement on a Writ of Mandamus during their meeting last Tuesday.

During an evidentiary hearing appearance on March 27, 2024 in the Douglas County District Court, it appeared a settlement would be agreed upon with a vote of the board, but during Tuesday's meeting, one by one, Susan Jansen, David Burns, Doug Englekirk, and Katherine Dickerson all made the same statement, "Because of a perceived conflict of interest I'm not voting." DCSD counsel Joey Gilbert said he advised the four to say that even though litigation could continue or they could work together to resolve the lawsuit, resulting in more legal fees.

On one side of the agreement were the petitioners — parent Dean Miller, former Douglas High School Principal Marty Swisher, former DCSD HR Director Joe Girdner, and former DCSD Trustee Robbe Lehmann. On the other side were the respondents — trustees Susan Jansen, David Burns, Doug Englekirk, and Katherine Dickerson.

The petitioners put in public records requests on May 17, 2023, and on July 26, 2023. They felt the respondents did not satisfy and comply with the two requests and initiated litigation against the school district.

Records that have been released show the four trustees violated the Open Meeting Law. They used group chat during board meetings where the public was not privy to discussions and texted and emailed back and forth on board deliberations between themselves and other people.

Since the respondents didn't vote, the remaining board members Linda Gilkerson, Carey Kangas, and Yvonne Wagstaff all voted against the settlement.

"The Petitioners entered into the settlement agreement in good faith and with the express purpose of limiting further costs and embarrassment for the Douglas County School District," said their attorney Richard McGuffin. "That said, the Petitioners understand the action taken by Trustees Gilkerson, Wagstaff, and Kangas, especially in light of the comments made by Trustees Englekirk and Dickerson during the April 9, 2024, School Board Meeting."

Both Trustees Englekirk and Dickerson sat through the entire March 27, 2024, hearing without having to testify. In the hearing it was laid out that DCSD and the four individually named trustees failed to comply with the Petitioners’ NRS 239 public records requests.

"The Petitioners graciously spared Trustee Englekirk and Trustee Dickerson from having to take the stand and provide testimony regarding their individual failures to comply with the law," added McGuffin. "Despite this grace, Trustee Dickerson has the audacity to claim compliance and Trustee Englekirk continues to claim Petitioners’ lawsuit was a 'travesty' and 'ridiculous.' If Trustee Englekirk believes that government transparency is ridiculous and having to comply with the law is a travesty, then he has no place in public office."

Dickerson said she thought she had complied as she turned over her personal communications and assumed that didn't mean the communications on school district emails. Englekirk also said he thought he'd turned over everything but called the lawsuit a "waste of time" and is "ridiculous."

"At this juncture, the settlement agreement has been rejected by the Board and publicly criticized by Trustee Englekirk who, under oath, agreed to its terms," said McGuffin. "The Board’s rejection of the settlement agreement together with the comments from Trustee Dickerson and Trustee Englekirk leave very little room to resolve this matter outside of a courtroom."

Further litigation puts the district on the hook for legal fees on both sides, along with payment of a third-party IT auditor.

"If they had complied in the first place we wouldn't be in this mess," said Wagstaff of the failure of the other trustees to comply in the first place.

"We could have done better," said Gilbert. He was hired by DCSD on July 19, 2023, after one of the public records requests, and before the second. The petitioners did not file the Writ until after Gilbert’s firm failed to respond to the July 26, 2023, request within 5 days as required by NRS 239.

Gilbert said he represents both the Board and the District, and the action was brought against both. The settlement reached in court could only be approved by an action of the board.

Wagstaff, Gilkerson, and Kangas sought personal legal counsel to make sure their interests are being protected, even though Gilbert told them it wasn't necessary. They took a few minutes during the meeting on Tuesday to discuss the situation with that counsel.

Conditions of the settlement agreement included training on public records requests, payment for a third-party IT investigation into communications, and payment of legal fees and costs incured by the petitioners and McGuffin (at almost $70,000 so far.)

Violation of Open Meeting Law

Much of the private communications centered around the selection of a board president and vice president, the firing of long-time legal counsel Maupin, Cox & LeGoy, and the hiring of Joey Gilbert Law as their replacement. The plaintiffs suspected the trustees were being guided by outside political influences, and documents showed the open meeting law violations included the four trustees, as well as Virginia Starrett, Nick Maier, Jan Muzzy, and Lynn Muzzy.

The plaintiffs said it was evident the four trustees involved in the lawsuit had already decided before the meeting who was going to hold office. Trustee Burns even brought a board clerk's bell to the meeting before he was even nominated or elected to the position. The lawsuit states this "seemed orchestrated." Two of the three appointed to board leadership during that January 2023 meeting were brand new trustees, yet they became board president and vice-president and seasoned members were not considered.