Beebe back at office

BREAUX BRIDGE — A vote to terminate St. Martin Parish School Superintendent Lottie Beebe’s contract Wednesday night by the St. Martin School Board did not stop Beebe from reporting to work Thursday as she and her attorney Lane Roy said the board’s actions were illegal and unjust. 

“I am disheartened of course,” Beebe said.

“I spent 27½ years in the St. Martin Parish School System. I’ve served as a teacher, assistant principal, supervisor, director and I was working on my sixth year as superintendent,” she said.

After St. Martin Parish School Board member Marc Hebert made the motion and James Blanchard seconded, the board voted 6-4 to terminate Beebe’s contract effective immediately.

Lane Roy, Beebe’s lawyer, said the action was illegal.

“The board member who made the motion prefaced his action with the statement that he did not have an issue with my performance but that he felt that the system needed to move in another direction,” Beebe said.

In a separate agenda item, the board voted to replace Beebe with Human Resources and Operations manager for the district, Al Blanchard, which also was illegal, Roy said.

In a phone interview Thursday, Roy spelled out the reasons why he said nothing the St. Martin Parish School board did in regards to the termination of Beebe had any legal standing.

“There are multiple legal defenses to the decision. Most of them involve violations of the state’s open meeting law,” Roy said.

Number one, the lawyer said, was the failure of the board to list specifically the item on the agenda involved the possibility of terminating Beebe. He also said there was no notice given to the public that the possibility of termination of Beebe’s contract was pending. 

“It didn’t give the public proper notice of that agenda item that is a violation of the public meetings law,” Roy said. 

“The same matter is being litigated by the attorney general in Vermilion right now. The state attorney general sued Vermilion over the same exact issue not specially stating the agenda items,” he said.

Roy said the fact there was no public discussion held on the issue also was a violation of the law.

“The second thing they did was to appoint by vote an interim superintendent that was not on the agenda at all,” Roy said.

Other errors in Beebe’s termination, the lawyer pointed out, dealt with contract law. Roy said Beebe was supposed to be given a 90-day notice of termination along with a list of exact causes of termination as well as a chance to address those causes. All of which should have been given the due process of a formal hearing.

“If the board still wanted to go through with termination after presenting cause they must have a full board hearing with a hearing officer, a lawyer and board members as well as the superintendent,” Roy said. 

After that hearing the attorney said two-thirds of the board must agree to terminate, which would require 7 out of 10 votes for St. Martin Parish School Board. Wednesday night’s decision to terminate only included 6 out of 10 votes.

“I’m not the only superintendent that has been the victim of this type of board action,” Beebe said.  “It is a common practice that when boards become disenchanted with superintendents they can just say ’bye. Last night I felt like the board discarded me like a piece of paper,” she said.

Beebe noted former Lafayette Superintendent Pat Cooper and Vermilion Parish Superintendent Jerome Puyau, who is on administrative leave based on issues regarding his character and competence.

“Some may ask, ‘Well how did I know to bring my lawyer to the meeting?’ ” Beebe said. 

“I had intercepted earlier in the day an email to my secretary by board members who were deciding whether to go into executive session to discuss my character and competence. I knew what that meant,” she said.

Beebe also said she was humiliated in December after learning that some board members wanted to vote her out then. She said she was asked by other board members to stay on because it was an election year and a new board could discuss a search for a new superintendent.

Beebe said she has reported to work daily since December without badmouthing the board and having an exemplary work ethic. She said she takes Wednesday night’s decision personally.

“This is personal to me in the sense I’ve worked with these board members for years and I’ve considered them extended family members,” Beebe said. 

“They want someone they can control,” she said. “I am the CEO. I make decisions and I have made decisions that were not palatable to some stakeholders but my decisions have always been based on what I think has been best for the St. Martin Parish School System.”

Beebe’s written contract expired in June 2018.

 “If the contract term ends and the parties continue as before the law presumes that you are operating under the same contract,” Roy said. 

“The St. Martin Parish School Board shot themselves in the foot in several ways. This was an ambush. I am advising Mrs. Beebe as of now and we are considering whether to file suit,” he said.

The Daily Iberian attempted to contact five St. Martin Parish school board members as well as the board’s attorney, Mark Boyer. The calls were not returned by deadline Thursday.