School board seeks more details in legal representation decision

  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

Oct. 13—LUMBERTON — The decision of who will provide legal representation for the Public Schools of Robeson County was shelved following the monthly meeting of the school board held this week.

During the meeting, PRSC Superintendent Freddie Williamson provided board members with his recommendation of which out of the three law firms that presented before the board in September, should legally represent the school district's board.

Each firm — Vogel Law Firm, Shwartz Law and Poyner Spruill — had an hour to present why they should be chosen for the job while fielding questions from board members.

Williamson ultimately suggested that Shwartz Law, led by attorney Richard Shwartz, provide legal services through a one-year contract.

"He's a powerful researcher, most superintendents across the state have worked with him," Williamson said. "There has never been an issue."

Following the recommendation, some board members expressed that there was a lack of information and discussion provided to make a decision.

"I think the board needs to be in on some of these discussions about what are our demands, what percent do we want them at the board meetings and that's very important," board member Vonta Leach said.

"We as a board have not discussed anything and I thought we would have that tonight before you made your recommendation. I mean I'm just being honest with you and that is not what occurred," board member Randy Lawson added.

Williamson said that he has conferred with members of the cabinet and board over the past month.

"We had conversations with every board member and I thought that would suffice. That is on me ... Any part that is not right is on me," he said.

Board member Craig Lowry put up the first motion which was to give Williamson the green light to gather information on prices and services with Shwartz Law Firm and consider whether or not to enter into a contract at the next school board meeting. The motion failed with board members Melissa Ocean, Tre' Britt, Randy Lawson, Tery Locklear and Vonta Leach voting against it. Board members Linda Emanuel, William Gentry and Henry Brewer voted in favor of the motion along with Lowry.

"Mr. Grady gave his services dirt cheap. You're not going to get any cheaper now so what do you want," Emanuel asked following the vote.

"I need to know what his money is going to be. We need to be good stewards of the money," Lawson answered.

The need for new representation was prompted by the departure of Attorney Grady Hunt, who served in the role for nearly 30 years.

The Robesonian learned that Hunt had tendered his resignation in May. He served his last day on June 30 but continues to provide services until another attorney is retained by the board.

"With all due respect to all of you, I intended for tonight to be my last night so I would implore you to make a decision on someone. I gave you my resignation back in May to give you plenty of time to do what you needed to do," Hunt said. "I respect all of you. I've been a good trooper but my intent was to tell you goodbye tonight."

Hunt reiterated Williamson's recommendation.

"Richard is one of those people in education law that taught Grady," Hunt said. "I sat in a lot of seminars where Richard was the presenter. You won't get anybody with more knowledge in education law than Ricard Shwartz across this state."

Board member Terry Locklear put up an alternate motion mirroring Lowry's with the exception that Poyner Spruill be added.

"That same information we're requesting from Mr. Schwartz, I would like to get that same information from that second group that we interviewed," Locklear said, referring to Poyner Spruill.

The motion passed 5-4 with Terry Locklear switching his no vote.

Public comments

During the Public Comments portion of the meeting, board members heard from family members, friends and the coach of a St. Pauls Middle School athlete who was banned from playing football for the rest of the semester after being involved in a fight during a St. Pauls High School football game on Aug. 26.

Jerome Hunt, PSRC's county athletic director, told board members that a procedure was put in place on Feb. 14 that bans students from PSRC athletic events if they are involved in a fight.

"We had a fight back then at a Lumberton High School basketball game which involved some athletes from another school and we wanted to put a rule in place to kind of help curtail some of this," Hunt said. "The reason we wanted to do this is because this weren't the first fight that we had last year. We had several fights at athletic events. It was almost every week."

The rule crafted by Hunt and five high school athletic directors, states in part that "any student disciplined for fighting at an athletic event, shall be banned for attending athletic events for the remainder of that sports season in which the fight occurred."

St. Pauls Middle School coach Adam Lowry said that more people should have been involved with constructing the rule and that it was not properly communicated to athletic staff.

"The rule that was put in place, do I agree with some aspects of it? Yes, I do. I think that discipline should be a part of every athletic program, every school and I stand for what I believe but what I believe in also was that this rule was not clearly given to us as football coaches," Lowery said.

"I think that if a rule is put in place to the severity that a kid can lose his whole football season, I think more than the athletic directors of Robeson County should make a decision on that rule ... I think there should be a whole lot more people involved," he added.

Lowry said the student-athlete involved in the incident has had a clean record in his three years at the middle school.

"He stands up for himself one night ... and now he's being punished for standing up to a bully," Lowry said.

"The rule is being enforced. The community wants to be up and arms and support the student and that's fine," Hunt said.

In other business, board members:

— Heard a data review update and plans for the future from Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum, Instruction and Accountability Robert Locklear and Cindy Lewis, director of PSRC Testing and Accountability, in regard to lifting the school district from its low-performing status.

— Approved the Shining Star's Child and Adult Care Food Program budget for the 2022-23 school year which totaled $162,750.47.

—Approved a District and School Improvement Plan.

—Approved 2021-22 year-end budget amendments.

Tomeka Sinclair can be reached at tsinclair@robesonian.com or 910-416-5865.