RULING

“I call upon the board, and the individual directors to announce, publicly, that they will comply, or I will be forced to ask the court to reconsider that portion of its ruling,” Marshall said in an email statement to Colorado Community Media and the four majority board members.

To date, the majority of board members have refused to admit they broke open meeting laws, pushing to appeal the initial ruling.

Friday’s ruling reiterates what Holmes said in his preliminary injunction in March 2022.

Holmes found that all meetings where public business was discussed must be open to the public, regardless of whether a decision is made, dismissing one of the arguments school board members had made.

“Circumventing the statute by a series of private one-on-one meetings at which public business is discussed and/or decisions reached is a violation of the purpose of the statute, not just its spirit,” he said. Holmes agreed with attorney Zansberg that at the Jan. 28, 2022, meeting between Peterson, Williams and Wise, the two board members gave Wise an ultimatum to resign or be red.

“ ough disguised as a choice, Wise was not given an opportunity to continue his employment,” Holmes said. “ e only options presented were options about how his job would end.”

Holmes also found that the Feb. 4, 2022, meeting where the board members red Wise without cause in a 4-3 vote did not x the board’s violation of the law because it “rubber-stamped” the decision Peterson, Williams, Myers and Winegar had already made.

As evidence of this, Holmes cited the lack of public comment and conversation about Wise’s performance during the meeting, as well as the quick timing.

“In a review of what actually