High court gets school bond fight

LINCOLN (AP) -- A group of residents who alleged the Verdigre school board repeatedly violated open-meetings laws before pushing for a school bond issue has taken its case to the Nebraska Supreme Court.

The group of 27 Knox County residents asserts that the Verdigre Public Schools board violated the state's open-meetings law in its quest to get approval of the $3.8 million school bond issue last November.

The residents contend the meetings violated the law requiring governmental bodies to conduct public business transparently.

The group's lawsuit said the board posted notice that it would hold a meeting in March 2008 "for school board members only." The lawsuit also alleged there were at least six secret meetings that included five or more of the board members between April and August 2008 without notice, an agenda or public participation.

The meetings included discussion about facilities and new construction, the lawsuit said. The meetings also included a vote that a bond issue was preferred for financing the improvements, which include a new junior-senior high school building, updating of an elementary school building and an annex and making other upgrades for handicapped-accessibility requirements.

A brochure printed for residents in the district calculated a 20-year bond could cost the owner of a $100,000 home about $248 a year.

School officials have denied that secret meetings were held and have maintained that efforts were made to involve district residents in the process.

Knox County District Judge Robert Ensz threw out the lawsuit last spring, ruling that the complaint was moot because any judgment regarding violation of state open-meetings laws would have had no effect on the results of the bond election.

The residents' attorney, Thomas DeLay of Norfolk, disagrees.

"Plaintiffs have an absolute right to pray that the court enter an order voiding for all purposes the actions taken by the board" during its meeting to approve the school bond election, DeLay wrote.

While the lawsuit does not address the bond vote, DeLay said the school board is required to file notice that it has complied with all the steps necessary to hold a bond election.

One of those steps is to hold legal meetings, DeLay said.

But the school board's attorney, John Recknor of Lincoln, argues that state open-meetings laws allow a court to fine those who violate the law and declare void any action taken at the meeting.

Even if a court found that the early 2008 meetings violated open-meetings laws, Recknor said, no action was taken at them meaning the most a court could do is fine school board members.

Recknor said the district is in dire need of a new school to replace the outdated one built in the early 1900s. The east entrance of the school has been blocked off because chunks of concrete have fallen from the building's exterior onto the sidewalk below, he said.

Construction on the new school is on hold until the legal wrangling over the school bond issue is resolved.

The high court will hear the appeal on Wednesday.

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