Four people chose to make public comments at Wednesday night’s Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) School Board meeting.  All commented in some way on the legal representation provided by the law firm Barnes and Thornburg, particularly legal fees and  responses to public information requests.

Stephanie Hunt, Jamie Cairnes and former board member Michelle Fullhart all offered public comments, some criticizing the board for the amount being paid for legal representation.  Also, a man identified only as Matt, was critical of what he described as a lack of response by the district and attorneys to requests for information.

Barnes and Thornburg attorney Chris Greisl responded that the school district, Indiana’s 4th largest in terms of student enrollment, is regularly “bombarded” with requests for public records requests.

“When records come in, they are produced in a timely fashion,” Greisl said.  “When people do not provide a reasonable particular request like (Matt) has done in the past, or they take a terrible tone with our staff or administration or teachers, they you are going to get a choice response”

According to Greisl, requests for records have been forwarded to the Indiana Public Access Counselor’s office.

As the board prepared to vote on the consent agenda, the newest board member, Latrica Schooley, asked that the item allowing Barnes and Thornburg to continue as legal counsel for the board in 2025 be removed from that vote and postponed to a future meeting.  Her motion passed on a vote of 5-2, with Juanita Albright and Ben Orr voting no.  Greisl told the board there would be no lapse of legal representation as a result of this delay.

Orr praised the job Barnes and Thornburg is doing for the board and the job the firm has done for HSE Schools in the past.