Board renews Wonderland lease, debates CCHA public-records charge and plans communications work session

The West Lafayette Community School Corporation trustees voted Jan. 13 to renew the lease with Wonderland and approved the remainder of the consent agenda while setting a separate discussion for accounts-payable items. The Wonderland lease renewal passed with six votes in favor and one abstention; the abstention was declared by a trustee who said she serves on Wonderland’s board.

The consent agenda Trustees approved the bulk consent items at the start of the regular meeting by a roll-call vote. Several items were pulled for separate discussion: the Wonderland lease and the accounts-payable packet, which included an invoice from the legal firm CCHA.

CCHA invoice and public‑records discussion Trustee Yue raised a question about a legal invoice charging $837 for work on a public-access request involving board-member text messages. Yue asked why the district paid that amount and whether the district could routinely release messages instead of incurring legal costs: "I noticed that the legal service, the CCHA charge us $837 for public access request... I wonder why do we have to consult them for this public request," she said.

Superintendent Dr. Griner explained the district’s concern about turning over personal phone contents and described the approach used in that request: because some trustees’ devices contain work-related or sensitive data, the superintendent said the district asked individual trustees to provide their own texts rather than running a district search of private phones. As Griner put it, the compromise reached was that "we would ask individual board members to turn over their own information." He also said the district’s IT and counsel coordinated to protect sensitive data and to avoid subjecting privately owned devices to broader searches.

Board direction on communications Trustees agreed the recurring concerns about how public communications reach the board merit more formal guidance. The board chair asked staff to schedule a public work session to develop a communications agreement covering how the board will acknowledge public emails, who will respond and how emergency communications will be handled. Chair and trustees agreed they want a single public-facing board email address and routine anonymized forwarding of substantive patron messages to the superintendent and all trustees for transparency.

Vote on Wonderland lease - Motion: Renew Wonderland lease (moved by Dasha). Seconded. Outcome: 6 yes, 1 abstain (member abstained because of service on Wonderland’s board).

Accounts payable and next steps The board approved accounts payable by roll-call vote during the meeting. Trustees asked for clearer procedures for public-records requests involving text messages and agreed to return with proposed communication rules and training at a work session. Superintendent Griner and several trustees said the district will provide a Friday information memo and that routine operational inquiries will usually be routed through the chain of command (building administrators or district offices) rather than handled directly by trustees.

Ending: The board directed staff to schedule a public work session on communications and public‑records handling and to include updates in Friday notes so trustees and the public have clearer guidance before the next meeting.