A former official has filed a lawsuit against the Council Rock School District and two school board members alleging violations of the Pennsylvania Sunshine Act.
Northampton Township resident Bernadette Heenan, a former Republican school board member, filed the lawsuit against the district, School Board President Yota Palli, and Vice President Ed Tate, who are both Democrats, last week in the Bucks County Court of Common Pleas.
The Pennsylvania Sunshine Act covers how governments operate when they meet and public access to those meetings.
The lawsuit alleges the state’s Sunshine Act was violated due “deliberation or official actions” regarding Durham School Services, the district’s transportation contractor.
The lawsuit said that the “deliberation or official actions” took place through closed session or via email on or around January 4.
Heenan alleged in her lawsuit that a “presentation and implementation of a plan” happened during the session.
The lawsuit noted that there was some discussion of the issue at last month’s and this month’s school board meetings.
At the February school board meeting, the body discussed new procedures and increased safety measures after a Durham School Service’s bus driver in the district was charged with DUI and other offenses.
The lawsuit comes after Republicans lost the board majority late last year and Democrats have taken the helm. The January board meeting featured a fiery comments and accusations amid the switch to a new solicitor.
No court date for lawsuit has been set as of Tuesday.
“Sunshine is often the best disinfectant. With controversy surrounding the new board majority’s process for decisions so far this year, we look forward to discovering the truth about these incidents on behalf of the public and Council Rock taxpayers,” said attorney Jeffrey Hall-Gale, who is representing Heenan.
Palli and Tate issued the below statement on the lawsuit:
It is disheartening to see Bernadette Heenan, a former Council Rock School Board member filing a suit with no merit, against the district. The motto of the Council Rock School District is “Students First, Always,” and that has been our focus ever since Durham School Services allowed one of their impaired employees to get behind the wheel of a Council Rock school bus on December 15th.
We met on January 4th to receive information on the safety of Council Rock children from Durham and make no apology for doing so. Our vendor had an extremely serious lapse in safety, and we needed to hear how they were going to ensure that would not happen again.
At our February 15th meeting, we brought them in to do a public review of their plan, and to make sure members of the public could question their plan and answer questions about what happened on December 15th.
Ms Heenan’s lawsuit is baseless, and a waste of school district resources. We did absolutely nothing wrong under the Sunshine Act, and every step we took concerning our January 4th meeting was under the advice of our former solicitor, Eastburn and Gray.
It’s very unfortunate that our good-faith effort to ensure the safety of our students is being challenged for no good reason. We are proud of our efforts, working in support of Dr. Sanko and his administration, to hold Durham School Services accountable.
