All in the Family

Two Relatives set for Boyd Co Board

This from the Daily Independent:

SUMMIT — Two applicants are scheduled to meet with a committee that will recommend an interim member of the Boyd County Board of Education.

However, the vacant seat may not be filled in time for the new member to vote on the board’s most pressing matter at the moment: whether to rehire Superintendent Howard K. Osborne.

The applicants are Tammy Pruitt and Charles Williams. Pruitt is the wife of Phillip Pruitt, the board member who resigned in April because of a conflict of interest. Williams is the brother of board member Teresa Cornette...

Although relatives of board members may not work for the district, there is no statute prohibiting relatives from serving on the same board, [Kentucky Board of Education spokeswoman Lisa] Gross said...

The committee that vets applicants forwards a recommendation to the commissioner of education, who then makes the appointment. Also, the commissioner or the committee may request additional applicants, Gross said...

Daily Independent Calls On Farris to Fill Vacancy - Fast

This from the Ashland Daily Independent:

Stay the course

Boyd schools have improved

under leadership of Osborne

Howard K. Osborne’s future as superintendent of the Boyd County School District could be decided by an as yet-to-be appointed member of the Boyd school board. We find that unbelievable. From our vantage point, Osborne has done an excellent job during his four years at head of the county school district and his contract — which expires at the end of June — should be extended.

Apparently, not all of the four remaining members of the school board agree with our assessment of Osborne.

According to board members Randall Stapleton, chairman Bob Green and he are in favor of offering Osborne a new contract, but board members Theresa Jackson and Teresa Cornette are not. Cornette declined to tell a reporter her position on Osborne’s future in the district, while Jackson says she has yet to make up her mind and wants to wait until the board is back to five members before making a decision.

“Some things could happen to change our minds,” Jackson said, without saying what those things are...

The Kentucky commissioner of education will fill the vacancy ... from a list of three applicants... Elaine Farris is serving as interim commissioner and has the power to fill vacancies on school boards. By law, current school board members and employees of the Boyd County School District have no role in filling the vacancy...

Without commenting on the controversy involving his position, Osborne has only said he wants to continue as superintendent.

[Osborne] should be given that opportunity. Before the next scheduled school board meeting on June 22, we hope a new board member will have been appointed and the board will vote to award Osborne with a new contract. And our hope is that the vote on the new contract is 5-0, instead of 3-2.

Court reverses decision on anti-harassment training

LOUISVILLE - An eastern Kentucky school district's anti-harassment policy constituted a "chill" on a student's free speech rights, so the student should be able to pursue nominal damages, the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Friday.

The three-judge panel of the Cincinnati-based court, in a 2-1 vote, decided that the Boyd County school district's policy effectively barred Timothy Allen Morrison's ability to profess his Christian beliefs and opposition to homosexuality. The ruling sends the case back to U.S. District Judge David Bunning for a trial on damages.

Judge Karen Nelson Moore, joined by Judge John R. Adams, wrote that the allegation of a policy stifling free speech is enough to allow Morrison to seek damages. To make his case, the judges said, Morrison must show that the policy would "deter a person of ordinary firmness" from exercising free speech.

Joel Oster, an attorney for the Alliance Defense Fund, a Scottsdale, Ariz., Christian law group that represented Morrison, said the ruling left him "ecstatic."

Sharon McGowan, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, who represented gay and transgender students in the case, applauded the ruling. McGowan said the ruling recognizes that schools can't violate anyone's free-speech rights.

"Our students have always been about promoting dialogue," McGowan said. "They have never been looking to suppress other people's views."

A message left Friday afternoon at the Boyd County Board of Education was not immediately returned.

Morrison, a senior at Boyd County High School, sued the Boyd County school district over the anti-harassment training, claiming the policy threatened him with punishment for expressing religious beliefs in opposition to homosexuality.

Morrison was never punished under the policy, a fact noted in Judge Deborah Cook's dissenting opinion. She said Morrison suffered no actual harm from the policy.

This from the Cincinnati Post.