The Washoe County School District Board of Trustees held off on taking action against Trustee Jeff Church.
Instead, that decision will be delayed pending an investigation into "who knew what, and when" surrounding the resignation of former Trustee Jacqueline Calvert.
The independent investigation conducted by the Gunderson Law Firm, presented their final findings to the board on Monday. The investigation was a smaller scope than some of the board members thought it might be.
"I'm appalled that Calvert was not interviewed. I find that the star witness who could say 'yes this is who I told what on what day or I didn't' would not be asked," said Church.
During the investigation presentation, the attorney pointed out that not all the information from Trustee Church was shared prior to the investigation to the board.Â
Dr. Angela Taylor, the President of the WCSD Board of Trustees told Church, "You had more details than I did, than legal counsel did, and you didn't share them."
Bruce Parks, a public commenter involved in the investigation after bringing information about former Trustee Calvert's living situation comments, "The reason that Jeff had certain information, but only so much is because I've seen the way he's been treated here, and it's my considered opinion that if I gave him everything I knew he would be getting in trouble."
Trustee Church thought the investigation should have been broader, in order to reach more of a conclusion for the entirety of the issue.
"This is such a narrowly focused investigation that I'm just disgusted."
Parks adds, "Their investigation was shoddy at best... they don't have all the facts."
More people at the meeting who signed up to speak during public comment agreed.
"How can you conduct an investigation to find out 'who knew when, what and where' without asking the person, Jackie, did you talk to anyone else on the board with whom you worked?"
"Kristen and leadership knew before this report was ordered, that Jackie told you guys back in 2019 March she had moved."
"It was her job and duty to know if she lived in the district or not."
Although the investigation wasn't the primary focus of the meeting -
Diane Nicolet, a member of the WCSD Board of Trustees says, "This was about correcting our open meeting law mistake."
Trustee Nicolet wants to be clear, they are not through with this topic of investigation for the future.
They wanted to put the focus of the meeting back on the violations made regarding the Open Meeting Law in past meetings with Trustee Church.
President Taylor says, "Someone needs to be noticed on their alleged misconduct and so on, and that did not happen. Since that did not happen we are, at least, potentially have violated the Nevada Open Meeting Law."
The board decided to accept the report and findings from the independent investigation conducted by the Gunderson Law Firm based on the scope of the investigation, the motion passed 5 to 1.
They want to be clear there will be more to come regarding this investigation in one way or another, and that it is not yet complete.
The board also decided that board reports will not be removed from future agendas after, that motion passed 4 to 2.
In regards to the censure of Trustee Church, after a presentation from both President Taylor and Trustee Church, public comment and deliberation from the board, made the decision to continue the discussion in regards to how the board can compromise to work as a team. The motion passed 4 to 2.
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