As attorney fees in Chieftain appeal approach $10,000, Green Mountain school board votes to stop paying
attorney-fees-in-chieftain-appeal-approach-10000-green-mountain-school-board-votes-to-stop-paying/green-mountain-union-high-school-3/” data-orig-file=”https://vtdigger.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Green-Mountain-Union-High-School.jpeg” data-orig-size=”503,328″ data-comments-opened=”0″ data-image-meta=”{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}” data-image-title=”Green-Mountain-Union-High-School” data-image-description=”” data-image-caption=”<p>Green Mountain Unified School District encompasses the towns of Andover, Baltimore, Cavendish and Chester. Photo via Facebook</p>
” data-medium-file=”https://vtdigger.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Green-Mountain-Union-High-School-300×196.jpeg” data-large-file=”https://vtdigger.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Green-Mountain-Union-High-School.jpeg” decoding=”async” width=”503″ height=”328″ src=”https://vtdigger.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Green-Mountain-Union-High-School.jpeg” alt=”” class=”wp-image-558282″ srcset=”https://vtdigger.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Green-Mountain-Union-High-School.jpeg 503w, https://vtdigger.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Green-Mountain-Union-High-School-300×196.jpeg 300w, https://vtdigger.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Green-Mountain-Union-High-School-125×82.jpeg 125w, https://vtdigger.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Green-Mountain-Union-High-School-400×261.jpeg 400w” sizes=”(max-width: 503px) 100vw, 503px”/> Green Mountain Unified School District encompasses the towns of Andover, Baltimore, Cavendish and Chester. Photo via Facebook
At a contentious special meeting, the Green Mountain Unified School District Board voted Tuesday to stop paying a law firm to represent it in appeals involving the district’s high school mascot, the Chieftains.
The vote came after the Chester Telegraph broke the news that the board was spending thousands of dollars in legal fees — news that took several board members by surprise.
“To find out through a Chester Telegraph article is actually embarrassing,” Josh Schroeder, a board member and opponent of using the Chieftain mascot name, said at the meeting.
Kate Lamphere, another member who has voted against the high school mascot, said she was “shocked” the board’s chair, Deb Brown, who was not at this week’s special meeting, had ignored “precedent” by approving legal fees without a board vote.
In an interview Thursday, Brown said she had “no idea” how board members were unaware of the legal fees, which she said were discussed in executive session. She also disputed the Telegraph’s reporting that the board had spent “more than $10,000” on lawyers to represent itself, instead saying the number was about $9,700 or $9,800 in 2023.
Green Mountain Unified School District encompasses the towns of Andover, Baltimore, Cavendish and Chester. The district’s high school, Green Mountain Union in Chester, has in recent decades used the Chieftains mascot, which used a Native American in a feathered headdress as its visual representation.
Back in October 2021, the board voted to drop the Chieftain image while keeping the name. The next year, the Legislature passed Act 152. The law required Vermont schools to adopt a “nondiscriminatory school branding policy” by the start of this year, aiming to eliminate the use of offensive and stereotypical branding at schools around the state.
In accordance with the new law, the Green Mountain school board voted 7-2 in January to eliminate use of the “Chieftain” mascot entirely — both name and image.
But after a push from local residents, the board reversed part of that decision, bringing back the name, a choice it reaffirmed this May when it voted that the “Chieftain” name did not violate the mascot policy. That vote in part prompted the resignations of multiple school board members and the Two Rivers Supervisory Union superintendent, Lauren Fierman.
Three members of the public have since appealed the board’s decision to the Vermont Agency of Education, prompting the board to pay for legal counsel. No hearings have yet been set in that process.
At Tuesday’s meeting, Fierman, who has kept her job until a replacement is found, said she could not represent the board as it faces appeals before the Agency of Education because she believes the Chieftain name violates policy.
But she also advised the board, even if it wished to stop paying legal fees, not to end its relationship with its lawyer, Mick Leddy, in the midst of the appeal process. Instead, she suggested the board or some of its members meet with its legal team to discuss the pending appeals.
The board ultimately voted Tuesday to stop paying legal fees related to the Chieftain name, and later decided unanimously to meet with its legal team free of charge to discuss the appeals.
A board meeting to discuss Chieftain-related legal expenses was originally scheduled for Sept. 21, but concerns that the meeting had been improperly warned nixed the gathering after mere minutes.
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