Sussex Tech violated open meeting laws

Sussex Tech officials violated the Freedom of Information Act at school board meetings in March and May by voting on items that were not properly noticed, the state’s Attorney General’s Office has found.

FOIA allows agendas to be amended up to six hours before a meeting for items that arise suddenly and can’t be deferred to a later meeting, as long as the reason for the delay is stated on the amended agenda.

In a Sept. 9 opinion, the Attorney General’s Office found Sussex Tech violated the law May 13 when it added a vote to its agenda during the meeting to phase out its hospitality program over a four-year period.

The ruling states the board did not amend the agenda six hours in advance, nor did it show phasing-out the program arose during discussion of other agenda items.

“Instead, the record reflects the board made a motion at the meeting’s outset to amend its agenda to allow consideration and vote on this new item without any public notice,” the Attorney General’s Office found.

The Attorney General’s Office found the superintendent’s decision to void the board’s vote in August by immediately ending the program when the hospitality teacher resigned to be the most serious part of the complaint, but the opinion notes whether the superintendent can unilaterally end a program is not a FOIA issue.

Additionally, the ruling said Sussex Tech’s principal stated in a letter that the hospitality program ended during the board’s April executive session. The board was then cautioned to review its use of executive session.

“The petition and reply also raise the specter of whether improper discussions may have occurred in executive session,” the opinion stated. 

Sussex Tech spokesperson Dan Shortridge said a qualified replacement teacher could not be hired before the start of the year without violating a collective bargaining agreement with the teacher’s union, and that low student enrollment and high cost per pupil led to the decision to end the hospitality program.

“The labor market analysis from the Delaware Department of Education also did not show a viable career path for our graduates,” Shortridge said. “Professional certifications available were either preparing students for low-wage jobs or for careers in food service, not hospitality.”

However, DOE spokesperson Alison May said the department’s analysis supports the need for hospitality and tourism programs. May provided DOE’s labor market analysis that showed the hospitality and tourism career cluster ranks second out of 16 clusters and is expected to see an 8.9 percent growth rate.

“Compared to other industries, the hospitality industry employs a greater proportion of low-skill and part-time employees,” the report states. “Those workers generally earn less pay than do skilled or full-time workers. Thus, the hospitality industry’s low pay may actually reflect the low-skill nature of much of the work and mask the more highly paid positions.”

Sussex Tech senior Hayley Talbot said she was devastated to learn two weeks before school started that the program had been terminated immediately.

“We would not be able to finish out the program like promised,” Hayley said.

Hayley said students were given the option to pick a new technical area or find somewhere to do work-based learning. She said she didn’t work because it would conflict with her band schedule.

“On the first day of school, I was pulled out of class and told I would be working at the school till I found something else I wanted to do,” Hayley said. “I now go to the adult education building. While I’m very thankful for them taking me in, that’s not what I want to do. I would kill to be like every other student at Tech and have a technical area. I feel as if my senior year was taken from me the second I got the phone call. I’m still attending Sussex Tech. A school I once thought of as a home is now somewhere I dread going to every day.”

Hayley said she plans to attend Del Tech to continue her education in hospitality. 

Shortridge said school officials addressed each student’s situation on a case-by-case basis in cooperation with their families; he said he would not discuss specific student circumstances.

A Sept. 15 attorney general opinion found Sussex Tech twice violated FOIA during its March 11 meeting when Superintendent Stephen Guthrie asked to add a voting item during the meeting to approve a consultant to conduct a feasibility study on whether to renovate the existing school or build a new school. 

The board voted unanimously to approve the request, then voted to unanimously approve the consultant, meeting minutes show.

In response to the complaint, Sussex Tech said the school missed its February target to vote on a consultant because the bidding process is complex, and Guthrie did not have the opportunity to notify unsuccessful bidders before publicly identifying the successful candidate March 11.

“Therefore, the meeting was the only opportunity to add the agenda item,” the response stated.

The district said deferring the selection to a future meeting would have delayed the entire study and not allowed Sussex Tech to apply for a certificate of necessity for construction by Aug. 31, the response stated.

When requesting the addition of the agenda item, the superintendent explained to the board that negotiations had just concluded and that a year’s delay in construction would be detrimental to the student population if the board did not vote that day, the district stated in its response.

The Attorney General’s Office stated ratification at an open session is the appropriate remedial step for the violations. The opinion stated Sussex Tech emailed the Attorney General’s Office Sept. 10 that the board ratified the contract award at its Sept. 9 meeting.

In October, the Delaware Department of Education denied a certificate of necessity requested by Sussex Tech to build a $150.5 million replacement school. Sussex Tech officials stated they will reapply for the certificate of necessity in 2020.