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Mountain Home school board members took turns leaving the room July 16 as their colleagues voted to allow the district to do business with companies connected to them, then spent part of the meeting responding to criticism the votes had drawn online.
The board approved separate resolutions covering 62 East Auto, Legacy Title and the law firm Sanders, Morgan & Clarke, Butler Furniture and Arkansas Landscaping & Irrigation. Each vote was taken individually rather than as a group, and the connected member stepped out for the vote involving his or her business. Brad Butler was absent from the meeting, so he was not present for the vote on Butler Furniture.
The disclosures are required by a state ethics law, Act 1599, which requires districts to make public any potential transactions with related parties. Board members said the online reaction suggested people misunderstood what the votes actually do.
“This doesn’t mean that we’re giving contracts to anybody that’s here,” board member Scott Booth said during the discussion.
Members said the resolutions only allow a connected business to submit a bid. The board does not know which company it is choosing when it votes on bids, they said. That matches the district’s bid summary sheets, which identify companies only as numbered bidders.
Board Secretary Mollie Morgan, herself one of the members with a disclosed relationship, added that bids come in sealed.
“No insider trading on this,” Morgan said.
The connection is not always ownership, members said. A relationship might involve a relative, such as a son-in-law who runs a business, rather than a board member’s own company.
In the case of Sanders, Morgan & Clarke, a member said Morgan’s husband has provided legal counsel to the district for many years without charge, and that the disclosure does not benefit Morgan or her family.
Members also noted that the resolutions do not end with the board. The state reviews potential conflicts involving board members and administrators and has final say, and can reject an arrangement it considers too close.
Later in the meeting, during board discussion, Morgan turned to the reaction on social media directly.
Morgan said she had broken her own rule about staying off Facebook during the previous two days, and that the negativity there affects mental health. She said she welcomed public scrutiny but objected to how it had been expressed.
“I think it is wonderful to have a community that’s paying attention to news reports and questioning things,” she said. “That’s what we should be doing as good citizens.”
What disappointed her, she said, was people going to social media “without proper knowledge” and questioning others’ integrity, ethics and motives.
“That’s not fair,” she said. “It’s just not fair.”
She pointed to the superintendent’s open door policy, community sessions held by the superintendent and board members, and board email addresses posted on the district website. She said she would never publicly criticize a parent or a student, and urged residents to bring questions directly to the district.
“Ask questions, seek right answers, and quite frankly, stay off of social media,” she said.
Booth said the criticism had focused on district spending, including therapy services and renewed contracts, and argued that few of the people commenting had attended the meeting or watched it online. He said some of the reaction appeared to borrow from national political coverage rather than local facts.
Booth encouraged residents to attend meetings and contact board members, noting the district will need public input soon on a significant question.
“How do we fund a new high school build,” he said, describing a discussion the board expects to begin in the coming year.
The spending that drew attention came up again later in a different context. A member noted the district recently advertised for a speech language therapist and received no applicants at all, and suggested the personnel policies committee review whether district pay is competitive.
That vacancy points to one reason the district contracts therapy services out. Mountain Home budgeted more than $1.5 million this year for outside speech, occupational and physical therapy, two of the largest items on its list of major vendor payments.
Morgan said the online discussion may have surprised residents in a different way, by revealing how many services the district is required to provide.
“Public education is for every single child,” she said.
