At its June 16 meeting, the Greene County Board of Education did not act on the latest legal settlement offer from Lake Oconee Academy.
Two days earlier, on June 14, the Lake Oconee Academy Board of Governors approved a proposed resolution it said was based on an agreement made during talks between LOA CEO Otho Tucker and Greene County School Superintendent Chris Houston.
It was suggested that when the Greene County Board of Education approved it, LOA would drop its lawsuit over funding that was filed against the BOE in 2020.
The problem was that BOE Chairman Mike Lynch, who attended the LOA meeting, did not know of any deal between the two educators. He called Houston, who was on vacation, and Lynch later told the Lake Oconee News that Houston did not think the two sides had an agreement.
Houston confirmed that in a text exchange that night with the Lake Oconee News.
“We had a promising conversation,” Houston wrote, “where we clarified points of concern and I recommended that Dr. Tucker responds to our offer or counter through his attorney. We are not far apart in my estimation.”
The BOE had only one day to review the offer. Unexpectedly, it came with a deadline of 5 p.m., which was one hour before the BOE was scheduled to meet.
Still, the BOE discussed the offer in an executive session that night but took no action. Lynch said it wasn’t much different than the previous offers from LOA.
LOA Board Chair Mark Lipscomb said on Monday that he did not understand why their attorney added such a short deadline.
“I think it should have been different,” he said. “My personal opinion. I thought it was such a fair offer that they would hopefully accept it on Thursday night.”
Discussions about the lawsuit come at a difficult time when failure could lead to a trial. At the same time, both sides are discussing long-range plans, and soon negotiations will begin to renew LOA’s charter.
Lipscomb said that the only thing that his board is focused on is the litigation.
“We’re not negotiating the charter in this thing,” he said. “They’ve brought some stuff into it that are more charter-negotiable items than litigating the lawsuit.”
Neither side has publicly provided the details of any offers.
On Monday, Lynch told the Lake Oconee News that the Board of Education believes that what LOA is asking for would cause the current charter to be changed.
“They think they can go to 1,051 (students) any time they want, and we have to pay them for it. That’s not what we think the charter says.”
The LOA lawsuit, among other things, challenges the BOE’s interpretation of who determines what LOA’s enrollment is and how many of those students are funded by the BOE.
“What they’re asking for is beyond the charter,” Lynch added. “If that’s the case, we think some things ought to be fair game.”
He said that he and BOE member Perry Lee are working to come up with another offer to respond to LOA.
If there’s no resolution, the case will soon go to trial in Fulton County Superior Court, at taxpayer expense.