FAYETTEVILLE - MARCH 14, 2023 - Lawrence County Independent School board held a board meeting Tuesday afternoon revealing the results of an investigation that spanned several months on allegations of financial mismanagement and allegations of inappropriate relationship between two employees.
Lawrence County Independent School
Photo: Lawrence County Independent School board has been reduced to three members at this time following the resignation of President Eric Johnson and Ryan Turner
Lawrence County Independent School is in the search of two board members following the resignations of the president Eric Johnson and Ryan Turner.
Corey Hudson has been named as president, Jason Lyons, Secretary, and Ryan Grissom as Treasurer to the LCIS board following the two resignations.
Lawrence County Independent School Board is in search of new members
The LCIS can have as many as nine board members to govern the charter school.
Two employees will no longer be working for Lawrence County Independent Schools. Those employees Trisha Turner and Josh Davis who will not be returning to LCIS.
However, the attorney Alexandria Curlin with Curlin and Clay Law Offices, representing the Lawrence County Independent Schools on the matter refused to comment on whether their departures were resignations or terminations.
Public schools within Lawrence County have always provided whether any personnel changes were resignations or terminations.
During the community meeting Lawrence County Zephyr asked whether by Indiana Law the charter school had to release the information to the public when the two were placed on admirative leave. Curlin replied that this is only a cultural thing to the area and was not required by Indiana Law. Curlin noted in the Indianapolis area, that the information is not made public.
Lawrence County Zephyr asked why the information was not released to the public in a timelier manner to which the response was " we will note this for the future,".
In January, the board LCIS and Education One received several allegations of inappropriate conduct by couple staff members. " The board took the allegations seriously, and wanted to make sure those were properly investigated, " said Curlin.
The board contracted with the law firm of Amber Boyd law who specializes in employment law to help with the investigation.
The law firm interviewing staff and community members of the allegations and working with board members to come up with a determination of what allegations were true and what allegations were false.
The investigation determined there were no finding of financial malfeasance, and no missing dollars. According to Curlin, the investigation did reveal an inappropriate relationship between two staff members. Those two staff members have been disciplined and will no longer be at LCIS.
Student safety will always be a priority at LCIS, in a comment made by Curlin during the meeting.
A community meeting was conducted immediately after the LCIS board meeting. The board itself did not respond to the public during the community meeting.
LCIS is actively seeking new board members to serve on the board.
The staff and parents are ready to move forward from the situation.
For breaking news, news and information go to lczephyr.org or like/follow the Lawrence County Facebook page.
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