Penncrest school board fills third vacancy in less than six months

CAMBRIDGE SPRINGS ― A Crawford County school board that has enacted policies banning library books with sexual references and prohibiting transgender females from playing girls sports filled its third vacancy in less than six months, but remains without legal counsel days after being sued for allegedly violating the state's Sunshine Act.

At a special meeting Monday, the Penncrest school board appointed 54-year-old Guys Mills resident Michael Chausse to fill the seat vacated in January by Jennifer Davis. Davis, who had been a board member since 2019, resigned out of frustration with her colleagues, the last straw coming when members passed the controversial amendment to the library policy.

Davis exited the board following the departure of Brian Lynch in December and Matt Vogt in September. The board appointed Amber Tyson Wright to fill Vogt's seat and Fred Bryant to fill Lynch's seat.

Chausse, like other candidates who gave a brief presentation to the board Monday, noted the apparent rift between the board and community.

"I know there's tensions between the parents and the board members and all that," said Chausse, a registered Republican according to voting records. "I look to progress as a school board to interact, which I love to do, with people and try to understand where they're coming from and maybe we can build a successful operation up here with the school board to give back to the community, and maybe find some common ground."

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Chausse is the father of two Maplewood Junior/Senior High School graduates and a daughter who attends the school. A Massachusetts native, Chausse has worked in logistics management for Ainsworth Pet Nutrition, a J.M. Smucker company, since 2008. He served as a pastor at the New Beginnings Church of God in Meadville from 2013 to 2017.

Chausse was one of 13 to apply for the post and among nine who interviewed Monday with the board. He received the backing of board members Amber Tyson Wright, Robert Johnston, David Valesky and Board President Luigi DeFrancesco.

Before the vote, Tyson Wright asked to change the voting procedures. She wanted votes to be cast anonymously through a secret ballot. A USA TODAY Network reporter objected to the recommendation during the meeting because it would have violated Pennsylvania's Sunshine Act, which requires elected officials to cast votes in public and requires public bodies to keep records of such votes.

Tyson Wright's fellow board members voted against her motion.

A majority of them sided with Tyson Wright's nominee for the vacant seat, though. Three other board members, Jeff Brooks, Tim Brown and Theresa Croll, voted for three others each had nominated. Brooks was stopped from nominating two candidates because only one seat was open.

In a packed auditorium at Cambridge Springs Junior/Senior High School, local residents, who turned out in droves to hear about potential school consolidation plans, hurled comments from their seats about the board's confusion over its bylaws, with some asking aloud whether they even knew their own rules.

More:Penncrest board enacts book ban with one policy, targets transgender athletes with another

Citizens addressed the board on a range of issues, with many mentioning the "bad press" the district has garnered in recent months and infighting among board members, including an instance of board members suing each other. In late December, Pennsylvania Superior Court upheld a decision to dismiss a defamation lawsuit that DeFrancesco filed against Brooks in July 2021 over a string of social media posts critical of DeFrancesco.

The latest lawsuit involving the board targets DeFrancesco specifically. Filed on Friday in Crawford County Common Pleas Court, Cambridge Springs resident Carla Brown, 46, accuses DeFrancesco and the board of violating the Sunshine Act during its Jan. 12 meeting by barring several residents who had signed up to address the board from speaking on the proposed policy changes.

DeFrancesco told the audience before the citizens comments portion of the meeting that board rules allotted 5 minutes per speaker for up to 30 minutes total, meaning it was possible not all of the 12 people who signed up to speak would have the chance.

Brown objected to the rule and told the board it would not be unreasonable to extend speaking time by an additional 30 minutes. DeFrancesco told Brown she didn't have the right to make an objection because she isn't a board member. The district's solicitor told Brown to proceed in stating her objection. But DeFrancesco declined to grant Brown's request, saying "the rules are the rules" and that anyone denied an opportunity to address the board on agenda items would be able to speak at the end of the meeting when time is allotted for citizens to discuss non-agenda items.

Brown wants the court to find DeFrancesco in violation of summary offenses, fine him, force him to pay court costs and prohibit the district from reimbursing him. DeFrancesco, she said, acted unilaterally on her objection when it should have been the entire board that weighed in.

She's also asking a judge to declare all actions taken by the board at its Jan. 12 meeting "null and void" and to order board members to take Sunshine Act training.

Though Brown herself wasn't slated to address the board, she noted several of the speakers had already addressed the board at its Jan. 9 work session, while others who signed up and were unable to speak had yet to speak.

"Less than half who had a chance to speak Monday had a chance to speak before the vote," Brown told the USA TODAY Network. "I didn't think that was fair."

Brown said the board "had choices" to accommodate the speakers, either by allotting more time to speak or giving preference to citizens who had not yet addressed the board.

More:Penncrest solicitor resigns from school district as schools pull books from shelves

DeFrancesco did not return a call for comment Tuesday.

The lawsuit was filed as the district is without legal representation. That's because eight days after the Jan. 12 meeting, Erie attorney George Joseph, of the Quinn Law Firm, resigned, citing in a letter a “fundamental disagreement” with a majority of the school board that “compromised (the law firm’s) ability to provide legal ongoing services" to the district. Joseph noted in his resignation letter that some board members had ignored his legal advice about the library policy and the transgender athletics policy.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Penncrest school board fills vacant seat, but still without attorney