Council Rock Violated Sunshine Act Says Former School Board Member

NEWTOWN, PA — The Council Rock School Board has been sued by a former board member for violating the Sunshine Act when it held a work session on Jan. 4 to discuss its bus transportation vendor.

The suit, filed by Bernadette Heenan of Northampton Township, names the school district, superintendent Andy Sanko, board president Yota Palli, and vice president Ed Tate as defendants.

In her lawsuit, Heenan argues that the district violated the state’s Sunshine Act when it held a work session in closed session or via email on Jan. 4 that included the presentation and implementation of a plan regarding the Durham Bus Company.

The meeting was prompted by an incident in late December that involved a Durham bus driver who was charged by police with driving under the influence of alcohol and endangering the lives of the students he was transporting.

At that meeting, Heenan said Palli “allowed for official action or deliberation to include or exclude implementation of plans regarding Durham bus company.”

Heenan said the school board announced on Jan. 18 that the work session was held to discuss personnel issues and issues related to transportation issues. She also says in the lawsuit that at the Feb. 18 meeting, Palli announced that the board “had a presentation where it instituted a plan that was presented to the school board and administration” during the work session.

“The implementation of a plan regarding Durham was conducted in a closed working session when it should have been in a public meeting,” reads the lawsuit. “The board should have held an executive session instead of a working session to discuss personal issues related to Durham.”

The Pennsylvania Sunshine Act requires agencies to deliberate and take official action on agency business in an open and public meeting. It also requires that meetings have prior notice, and that the public can attend, participate, and comment before an agency takes official action. The reason for holding an executive session must be announced at the open meeting occurring immediately prior or subsequent to the executive session.

Palli and Tate issued the following statement in response to 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 Dec. 15.

"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 have questions answered about what happened on Dec. 15.

"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 Jan. 4th meeting was under the advice of our former solicitor, Eastburn and Gray."

They concluded, "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."