New board criticized over actions

It’s deja vu at the Big Oak Flat-Groveland Unified School District, which may have elected a new board but is still experiencing the pre-recall election drama.

The board decided in closed session at their first meeting on May 28 to move district records from the district office site in Don Pedro to somewhere in Groveland, said Board President Ian Morcott.

The board did not have to disclose its decision to move the records, Morcott said. If they decided to move the entire office entity then they’d have to report it out of closed session, he said.

Not everyone agrees with the board’s decision and former board president Lillian Cravens said Tuesday she had filed a complaint with Joe Silva, Tuolumne County superintendent of schools.

“You want to play ball? I’ll show you how the game is played,” Cravens said.

However, Silva said, the superintendent of schools office is not an enforcement body and can only lead people in the necessary directions. If something illegal occurs, his office encourages people to contact the sheriff or district attorney.

At Thursday’s meeting, the board voted to complete a feasibility study on moving the district office but they still must find a place for it.

The records moved were “archive material, a lot of really old records,” Morcott said.    

He said the privacy of the district office is compromised because it shares space with the business office and the board is investigating a more suitable situation.

Morcott declined to comment on the expediency of the records move.

“We did not move the office. The office is still there. The phone still rings,” Morcott said, adding that prior boards have moved records without formal board approval.

Cravens said the new board violated the Brown Act, which spells out public meeting laws, by discussing personnel issues at Thursday’s board meeting during closed session with attorney John Lupo, who at the time had not signed a contract for services to the district.

However, Tom Newton, general counsel for the California Newspaper Publishers Association, said the move was perfectly legal.

“They retained him for the evening. The lawyer would be seen as a necessary party in that discussion so that would be OK,” Newton said of the verbal agreement between the board and Lupo to provide services for the evening.