An increase in legal expenses forced this school district to amend its current budget
The Carroll school district has spent over half of its legal budget during the first four months of the fiscal year due to increases for open records requests, special education requests and open meetings act investigations.
Trustees voted 6-0 Tuesday to approve a budget amendment request for $202,000 to cover increasing legal expenses and additional funding for COVID-19 costs.
The board approved $190,000 for the district’s legal budget and $12,000 for COVID-related costs.
William Wooten, assistant superintendent for financial services, told trustees that the district’s legal budget for the fiscal year is $305,700, and so far, Carroll has spent $202,000 during the first four months, Wooten said.
There are eight months left in the fiscal year, he said.
“Our forecast for the next eight months is that we will continue to see higher costs in public information act, special education and litigation costs,” he said.
Since September, when a parent sued the district alleging that five school board members violated the Texas Open Meetings Act, Carroll has spent $77,580 on Texas Open Meetings Act investigations which was not in the 2020-2021 budget and Wooten said estimates show that Carroll will need an additional $132,580.
Carroll budgeted $175,000 for public information requests and has spent $77,175 thus far.
Wooten said the district processed approximately 220 requests as of Dec. 30. Many had to go through attorneys because details involving personnel and student information cannot be released, he said.
The public information requests are up three times over last year’s number, Wooten said.
“We feel this is a very conservative request,” Wooten said.
Superintendent Lane Ledbetter said he wanted to clarify incorrect information from several in the audience who spoke during the public comment portion of the meeting.
Several speakers took the district to task about spending taxpayer dollars on the law firm Thompson and Knight for representing individual board members in the Texas Open Meetings Act investigations, but Ledbetter said the firm is representing the school district and not board members.