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Lisa Rooke, Southwest Times Record

A Mountainburg woman filed a criminal report with the Crawford County Sheriff’s Office Thursday against the Mountainburg School District for alleged violations of the Freedom of Information Act.

Natalie Davis, who recently led a petition to deny primary school Principal Jan Bridges’ contract renewal, reported to investigator Brett Hartley that she has been denied access to several school financial records and access to what she considers an illegal meeting of school board members.

She stated in the report that the school board and superintendent met with an attorney in a closed session before a public meeting Feb. 28. The media and public were not informed that a special meeting or executive session would be held. Arkansas FOI law bars attorneys from meeting with school board members in executive session.

She also was advised by district secretary Dama Smith that the attorney’s name was Kristen Gould, but was phoned later in the day by Smith, saying the attorney’s name was actually Elizabeth Turner, according to the report.

Kristen Gould of the Arkansas School Board Association returned a phone call Thursday that was missed, but did not return a second phone call. No attorney named Elizabeth Turner is listed locally. Davis said Smith told her Turner is based in Little Rock. The only similar Little Rock attorney listed is Elizabeth Boyter Turner. Turner did not return a phone call Thursday.

Contacted Thursday, School Board President Russell Blaylock said he asked Superintendent Dr. Jim Bridges, Jan Bridges’ husband, to contact an Arkansas School Board Association member so that board members could talk with her just before the school board meeting. He said conversations centered around policy advice, but not about Jan Bridges’ contract.

“We didn’t meet with an attorney to discuss her contract at all,” he said. “We talked with an adviser from the Arkansas School Board Association.”

Each board member talked to the woman individually for about five minutes, he said. Blaylock denied that it was Elizabeth Boyter Turner and said the School Board has never talked with her. He denied it was a closed or special meeting or that anyone was denied access.

School Board member Joan Cadorette said she and other school board members were asked by Blaylock to meet at 7 p.m. Feb. 28. She said the woman introduced herself as the school’s attorney. Cadorette denied the attorney was Gould and said she was told by Smith that it was Turner.

When asked why Blaylock called her and the other board members to the school, she said, “We were told that we would have an opportunity to talk to the school’s attorney about anything we wanted to ask an attorney. It was pretty open-ended.”

Cadorette also said, “This was information for the school board to help us decide when we went into executive session. She gave advice on how to handle similar situations to what was discussed.”

Board member Ron Gossage said he was in Little Rock and did not speak with the woman. Members Shirley Higgins and Delmer Watkins did not return phone calls Thursday. Neither did Jim Bridges.