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Schools

School cleared in Sunshine Law complaint

The state finds that e-mails about the charter school's director sent between board members were not illegal.

By BARBARA BEHRENDT
Published August 11, 2005

CRYSTAL RIVER - The board of the county's only charter school has been cleared of a complaint that it might have violated the state's Government-in-the-Sunshine Law.

On Wednesday, the State Attorney's Office released the results of an inquiry into whether e-mail communications between members of the Academy of Environmental Science board violated the requirement that public business be done in public. The e-mails concerned the job status of Lisa Merritt, who at that time was the academy director.

After meeting with school officials, Assistant State Attorney Mark Simpson concluded that he would close the case without further action because he had "determined that there is no actionable violation of the Sunshine Law. The basis for this decision is due to the lack of any evidence or testimony which proves a violation of the law."

Simpson said board members denied that they discussed Merritt's situation outside of public meetings. "While there has been the allegation that there were discussions between board members about Ms. Merritt's termination, we were unable to find any information proving this ever occurred," Simpson wrote in a summary to Ric Ridgway, the office's chief assistant.

The board voted in late March to not bring Merritt back as teacher and director for the new school year. Shortly after that, the board criticized Merritt for removing school curriculum. She said that the curriculum belonged to her and that she had developed it before coming to work for the academy.

In late April, the board decided to immediately end Merritt's employment at the charter school, and she was reassigned to Lecanto High School.

Merritt raised the Sunshine complaint with the State Attorney's Office, pointing to several e-mails in which academy board members discussed aspects of her departure, including concerns that she was questioning students and staffers about a district investigation into her husband Allen Kline's behavior around students. He was a substitute teacher at the school.

Merritt was ultimately reprimanded for questioning students and staffers about that case, and Kline was reprimanded and removed from the substitute teacher list for improper touching and making improper comments to students.

Simpson reviewed several e-mails and determined that "it is my initial opinion that the contents do not on their face establish a clear violation of the Sunshine Law by any of the board members."

He then went on to interview board president Carl Hansen, former board member Gary Maidhof, board members Dick Blewett, Robert Gill, Chris Lloyd and Tom Curry, the school district's liaison with the academy. After those interviews, Simpson concluded there was no proof of a law violation.

Board members and Merritt could not be reached for comment Wednesday afternoon.

Barbara Behrendt can be reached at 564-3621 or behrendt@sptimes.com

[Last modified August 11, 2005, 00:42:17]