According to the settlement agreement, the board of education will pay $5,850 to go toward court costs, attorney fees and any potential statutorily imposed penalty. All current board members also agreed to complete the Ohio Auditor’s free three-hour public records training within 90 days.
The agreement includes a provision that no party will admit fault or liability in the situation. The board approved the agreement without comment.
The complaint was filed in January in Miami County Common Pleas Court against the Board of Education and its 2023 members, including Amber Drum, Richard Mains Sr., Joellen Heatherly, Theresa Dunaway and Anne Zakkour. It later was amended to name instead current board members Drum, Mains, Angie McMurry, Kyle Thompson and Cindy Wilson Dillard.
In the complaint, Open Government Advocates claimed that the board of education states in its policies that it will provide notice of the time, place and purpose of special meetings and post notice of special meetings on its website. However, the complaint alleged, the board “rarely posts notice of its special meetings on its website.”
The organization further claimed the board held special meetings in February, June, August, September and October 2023 but either did not post notice of the meeting or the purpose of some of those special meetings on its website.
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