School board members testify at trial, verdict expected this week

BY MCKENNA HARFORD MHARFORD@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

Following a four-hour trial on Monday, a judge will decide if four Douglas County school board members broke Colorado Open Meetings Law when they red former Superintendent Corey Wise last year.

Douglas County District Court Judge Je rey Holmes listened to arguments over whether board President Mike Peterson and board members Becky Myers, Kaylee Winegar, and Christy Williams violated the law when they participated in a series of one-on-one conversations to discuss a plan to terminate Wise.

In March last year, Holmes already ruled against the majority members of the school board, saying the conversations held outside public view do violate open meeting laws.

e majority school board members did not want to admit fault, choosing to appeal the initial ruling and rejecting a settlement. After school district attorneys missed the ling deadline for a jury trial, Holmes will again rule on the case brought to the courts through a lawsuit led by State Rep. Robert Marshall, D-Highlands Ranch.

Marshall is asking Holmes to nd the board broke the law, prohibit future serial conversations on public business, and declare the decision to terminate Wise was invalid. Wise was red without cause in a 4-3 vote on Feb. 4, 2022.

Myers, Peterson, Winegar and Williams said they didn’t support the direction Wise was taking the district, including enforcing a mask mandate and implementing the district’s equity policy.

Prior to the board meeting, Peterson and Williams met with Wise on Jan. 28, 2022, telling him they had a four-vote majority and asking him to resign.

On Monday, Geo Blue, an attorney for Peterson, Myers, Williams and Winegar, argued that board members are allowed to have one-on-one conversations and maintained that there was no violation of the law because the conversations didn’t include debate or formal action regarding Wise’s position.

“ e legislature chose to say they are only public meetings if three or more members meet,” Blue said. “At the end of the day, so long as the votes are taken in public, with debate and with discussion, then there’s no harm to transparency.”