Canon-McMillan Hires Special Counsel

At a special meeting of the Canon-McMillan School Board Monday, directors hired special counsel to represent the administration in a personnel law suit being brought before the district. 

Despite superintendent Helen McCracken presenting the board with her preference to retain attorney Bruce Campbell -- two other candidates were added to the agenda, David Andrews and Ira Weiss.  

“I think that the board is going to make a mistake if we interfere in the process of hiring this person and that we should go along with the recommendation of the administration and hire Bruce Campbell,” said director Joseph Zupancic. 

The initial vote did not give any candidate the required five votes needed, but in a second vote of the top two, Weiss won with a vote of 5-2, with board members Zupancic and Debbie Link voting for Campbell. Laura Grossman and Robert Malwitz were not in attendance. 

When the issue of Weiss’s rate was brought up, nobody was able to give any financial figures, and the motion had included no monetary caps.

According to director Eric Kline, no cap has been set because he said at this point nobody is certain how involved the case will get.  

Solicitor Mike Lucas did not immediately return a message for further comment seeking further details about the legal matter.

In other business, director of business and finance Joni Mansmann presented the board with a preliminary budget for the 2011-2012 school year.  

“This budget is very preliminary, I want to stress that. The timeline that I’m working under is not ideal,” said Mansmann. 

A lot of factors are less than ideal, she said -- with this first draft of the budget totaling just more than $63.3 million and calling for  an almost 4.5-mill increase. These numbers are expected to change as a more clear picture regarding state funding becomes known, Mansmann said. 

She said the district can apply for exceptions regarding special education and retirement contributions -- and preliminary worksheets indicate the district could qualify for $1.7 million in these areas.

“The reason why I’m encouraging you all to vote to apply for the exceptions is to send a message to the state. The more schools that send the message that we’re applying for exceptions, maybe it will make an impact on our state budget,” said Mansmann. 

In its current form, the budget represents funding figures with state revenue from the 2008-2009 school year. Mansmann requested that the board keep all options open at this point until she has a better idea in March when the state’s preliminary numbers become available.