2. Presentation of Survey Data from Florida Association of District School Superintendents

Attachment: 07-21-15 Legal Services Presentation .pdf
Attachment: 07-21-15 Analysis of Attorney Fees (Handout).pdf
Attachment: 07-21-15 FADSS Legal Services-Medium districts.pdf
Minutes: For the record, Mrs. Kerekes stated that she had not yet received detailed billing statements for legal services as asked for multiple times through a public records request.

David Broskie, Assistant Superintendent for Human Resources, used a visual presentation to facilitate the workshop discussion.  He provided a cost comparison of a full-time school board attorney (previous FT attorney = $230,000) versus the cost of a part-time (flat rate) attorney (current PT attorney = $90,000). 

Mr. Broskie shared the results of a survey conducted through the Florida Association of District School Superintendents on legal services among other medium-size districts in the state of Florida. 

3. Discussion and direction by the Board

Minutes: 

Following Mr. Broskie's presentation, there was Board discussion with each member giving input and voicing their opinions.  Mrs. Kerekes and Mrs. Studdard both were strongly in favor of a full-time attorney, while the other three members were concerned about the cost for full-time services.  Mrs. McKinnon, Mrs. Condon, and Mrs. Gilhousen felt the flat-rate, part-time attorney was serving the district's needs and that the Board should continue with part-time services for another year and re-evaluate the need for full-time services again next year.

4. Next Steps

Minutes: Consensus was to put out an advertisement for a part-time, flat-rate attorney with experience, offering an annual contract of $90,000 for up to 20-30 hours per week.  The salary will include paralegal services.  The advertisement will be sent to the Florida School Boards Association and Florida School Board Attorneys Association.  The Board agreed to revisit the need for full-time legal services again next year.