- November 21, 2024
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The Flagler County School Board has approved a job description for general counsel for the school district, although the board has not yet formally approved the new position.
The board actually approved a draft of the job description on the consent agenda at its Dec. 19 business meeting. At an information workshop earlier in the day, board member Christy Chong said she was not satisfied with some of the wording in the description. But with board attorney Kristy Gavin scheduled to face termination at the end of the year if she and the district do not come to terms on a mutual agreement, board members agreed that time was running out.
At the workshop, Superintendent LaShakia Moore said she and Gavin will have another meeting by the end of the week. If they can agree, Gavin would shift roles from school board attorney to the new position of general counsel for the district, answering directly to Moore. Without an agreement, the board decided by a majority vote in October that her contract would be terminated on Dec. 31. The board is not scheduled to meet again until Jan. 9 for an agenda workshop.
Board members would still need to approve a mutual agreement. Board Chair Will Furry said any agreement would have to include a full release of Gavin’s contract, which does not expire until June 2025.
“It will be a deal breaker if we don’t have that in there,” he said.
Moore said there was a misunderstanding at the last meeting about her offer to Gavin and there was a desire to return to the table. Board member Cheryl Massaro, who had been sitting in on the meetings, said she had also misunderstood. Massaro told the Observer last week that the offer would include a stipulation that Gavin not initiate litigation against the district.
Furry told Massaro that she should not have made comments to the media based on the closed-door meetings. Massaro said the meetings “were not asked to be confidential,” and she was also under the impression that the negotiations were at an end.
Colleen Conklin recommended that Moore and Gavin work out an agreement on their own. Furry and Massaro agreed.
Massaro said that according to an employment attorney she spoke with, Gavin could have a case against the district for a “hostile work environment, wrongful discharge, sex and age discrimination and defamation.”
Furry said that ultimately, Gavin’s termination will be with cause, although cause has not been put forward yet.
Furry, Sally Hunt and Chong all said they have just cause to terminate Gavin. Hunt said at the workshop that she would not be comfortable putting together a legal draft without counsel.
“You need to articulate your cause in writing and put support with it, and anyone else who has cause,” Furry said.
Chong would not say at the workshop what issues she had with the district's job description for general counsel, but she said she would talk to Moore between the two meetings.
“I can’t say anything without it being taken out of context,” she said. “So I would like to speak to the superintendent.”
At the business meeting, Furry said he spoke to one law firm, Weiss and Serota, about acting as board attorney on an interim basis. They would charge $300 per hour, Furry said.
