NEW HANOVER COUNTY — Discussions over the closure reversal of the Career Readiness Academy at Mosley and choosing additional legal counsel turned into their own sort of litigations on Tuesday night.
READ MORE: NHCS will seek additional legal counsel in wake of Vogel lawsuit
First up on the school board’s agenda was approving the acceptance of contract proposals from legal firms Poyner Spruill and Sink Law Firm. The board is seeking a firm to handle its special education caseload after it determined in February its general counsel, Vogel Law Firm, were not equipped to do so.
The board’s ultimate decision was to accept both contracts, meaning it can choose either firm to represent the board in exceptional children cases.
Poyner Spruill’s rates are $255 per hour for partners, $210 for associates and $120 for paralegals; the contract runs through June 20, 2024.
The Sink Law Firm contract offers slightly cheaper rates: $135 for partners, $195 for associates and $125 for paralegals. It runs through Dec. 31, 2025.
The board only received Poyner Spruill’s contract to review ahead of the meeting. Staff said the Sink Law Firm contract was withheld as it underwent an audit, but several members of the board were uncomfortable taking action on the contract on little notice, plus there was one caveat in the Poyner Spruill contract they took issue with.
The contract states the firm will handle special education cases or “other matters not handled by the board’s general counsel.”
“In my motion last month, it was specifically discussed for our special education department,” board member Josie Barnhart said.
Barnhart was the initiator to seek additional counsel for the board’s EC caseload, previously handled by Jonathan and Leigha Sink when they worked for Vogel Law Firm. The two attorneys split from Vogel and sued him and his firm in January over a payment dispute.
Barnhart’s original motion was to hire Sink Law Firm outright, but after pushback from other board members, she amended it to review proposals from Sink and Poyner Spruill. The latter lost out to Vogel Law Firm when the district was selecting counsel after choosing not to renew its legal contract over a year ago.
Several board members — Democrats Stephanie Walker and Hugh McManus, along with Republican Stephanie Kraybill — have been critical of Vogel’s perceived lack of transparency and bias toward GOP ideals.
Republican board member Pat Bradford motioned to strike “other matters not handled by the board’s general counsel” from the contract and it passed 4-3, the board’s right-wing majority in favor.
However, board member Melissa Mason and Bradford (who didn’t want to seek additional counsel in the first place) voted against accepting the contracts, though they were outnumbered.
“We’re in a budget crisis, yet we’re sitting here talking about adding another attorney firm or two other attorney firms that could be taking up another teacher’s salary,” Bradford said.
Mosley post-mortem
One of the last things discussed Tuesday was the now-reversed closure of the Career Readiness Academy at Mosley. The subject matter has drawn ire from the community, New Hanover County commissioners and the school board due to the perceived lack of transparency from the district’s central office. Board members claimed they were not told of the plans to close the program.
In early December, Mosley parents received a letter stating the “high school program at the Career Readiness Academy at Mosley will end” after the 2023-2024 school year. The enrolled students were to transfer to their districted high school or apply to a different specialty program. The program was described as inadequate at connecting students with opportunities and, thus, too unrewarding for the funding it cost the district, especially in light of the district’s $20 million budget shortfall.
“Sometimes accomplishing something like graduating high school is the point,” board member Stephanie Walker said during Tuesday’s discussion. “Graduating from high school is one of my greatest accomplishments and milestones.”
In January, Foust announced the district would abandon its plans for a newcomer and keep CRA open after significant community pushback, though Foust noted the two decisions were distinct from each other.
This has not stopped some, including NHC county commissioner Dane Scalise and board member Pat Bradford, from conjoining the two.
“Mosley parents were emailed between Thanksgiving and Christmas essentially saying, ‘We’re turning students out to replace them with a school for immigrants,’” Bradford said Tuesday. “That defect is projected to cost the taxpayers $1.2 million more than the proposed budget for Mosley.”
The letter to parents did not reference a newcomer school. The public first learned of the concept, aimed at helping students with limited English transition into the district, at the Nov. 28 board meeting.
“Go back and watch the video,” Foust said Tuesday. “And I’ll add to that — Ms. Bradford at two hours and five minutes, you said, ‘Congratulations, this is fabulous.’ Those are your words.”
He added no board member came to him with questions or concerns after the newcomer school presentation.
The superintendent also addressed Bradford’s comments about the mismatched funding amounts for the CRA program and newcomer school. The district’s presented costs to run the CRA program was $1.3 million, with a now-expired grant funding $350,000; in the FY2025 draft budget, the cost is under $675,000, according to Bradford.
“The reason why those budget numbers are wrong — or not wrong but are different — is because it’s what the board asked us to do,” Foust said.
Foust said the board asked his staff to explore putting the program in another building to reduce costs. The board is also contending with the $20 million shortfall and each NHCS department has constructed its budget using a zero-based model. Instead of starting with last year’s budget amount, each department starts with $0 and has to justify its expenses. Still, NHCS will no doubt have to cut spending, either in programming, staffing or both.
The board ultimately passed a symbolic motion to reject the development of a newcomer school and keep the CRA program open for the foreseeable future.
“Students were kind of inserted into a whirlwind,” Barnhart said. “And I think that moving forward, our job as the board and superintendent and staff to be cognizant of these decisions being made such that we can present a united message of whatever the direction is going.”
Reach journalist Brenna Flanagan at [email protected].
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