The Washoe County School District board of trustees will consider tomorrow an agenda item to hire an outside attorney to monitor board meetings. The amount is for a $35,000 retainer.
“The primary concern and responsibility of the [WCSD’s office of general counsel] is that of protecting the District from liability and providing support to our schools and departments,” the agenda item notes. “The proposal to hire Independent Board Counsel will allow the OGC to achieve its mission of protecting the District from litigation and provide counsel to prevent future litigation.”
The past year and half, according WCSD, has seen the school district’s legal office spending “an inordinate amount of time on Board matters such as meetings of the Board, agenda creation, workshops of the Board on Board Governance, Board Leadership Team meetings after the Board meetings, consultation with Trustees regarding Board Policies, and attempting to assist with the resolution of Trustee matters,” the agenda continues.
It is proposed the hired attorney will “decrease attorney costs by being able to manage more litigation in-house,” staff noted.
Other agenda items
Trustees will also revisit the second investigation into the change of residence of its former Trustee Jacqueline Calvert. The first investigation didn’t include key information, so the district hired the same law firm again to re-do the investigation. WCSD said the second investigation will be made public after the meeting starts tomorrow.
The search firm selected to hire the district’s next superintendent will be provided more direction on how to proceed with hiring Superintendent Kristen McNeill’s replacement.
The board will also consider hiring a firm so the board “can compromise to work better as a team by hiring of Deb Darby and/or Randy Manner to conduct professional development, Board training, and ongoing coaching for the Board of Trustees.”
