Nash County Board of Education adopts agenda, moves into closed session to discuss personnel and litigation

The Nash County Board of Education voted unanimously on March 6 to adopt its work session agenda and to enter a closed session to discuss confidential personnel matters, confidential student records and to consult with the board's attorney on pending litigation, including the matter captioned Bunn v. Nash County Public Schools.

Presiding official opened the meeting and called the roll. "Per legal counsel, a waiver is not needed during a state of emergency," the presiding official said before asking for a motion to adopt the agenda. Board member Ricky Jenkins moved to adopt the agenda; board member Chris Bizzet seconded. A roll-call vote recorded "yes" responses from Board members Dean Edwards, Zach Gray, Ricky Jenkins, Linwood Weeks, Jamon Whitfield, Chris Bizzet and Doctor Washington, and the motion to adopt the agenda carried.

Board member Linwood Weeks then moved that the board go into closed session, citing statutory exceptions to open meetings to prevent disclosure of confidential personnel files and student records and to permit attorney-client consultation. The recitation referenced North Carolina General Statutes related to closed-session exceptions and specifically cited protections for personnel and student records and consultation with counsel on litigation. The motion referenced the pending case captioned Bunn v. Nash County Public Schools. The motion was seconded by Chris Bizzet. A roll-call vote again returned unanimous support and the presiding official stated, "We are now in closed session." The transcript does not record further public actions after the board entered closed session.

The statutes named in the meeting record were cited by speakers during the motion (transcript excerpts reference General Statute numbers in the recitation; see authorities and clarifying details). The case number cited for Bunn v. Nash County Public Schools in the spoken record was not clearly transcribed; the transcript provides an unclear alphanumeric string and does not include a clearly typed case number.

Because the board entered closed session for matters including personnel, student records and attorney-client consultation, no substantive details about the content of those discussions are included in the public transcript.