This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
A member of the Salt Lake City Board of Education is questioning how and when the school district agreed to the settlement terms of a federal lawsuit.
The Salt Lake City School District, along with the Salt Lake City Police Department, was sued after West High School students in 2010 were rounded up, questioned and accused of gang affiliation.
On March 17, the lawsuit parties announced a settlement agreement that included ending police "gang sweeps," training for administrators and police officers assigned to schools, creation of an oversight committee to review school-based arrests and a $100,000 payment to three West High School students who were plaintiffs in the suit.
School board member Michael Clara says the board received updates on the lawsuit negations, but never took action to approve any terms.
"How did we settle on it if it never came to the board?" Clara said.
Clara, who represents the district's more-diverse west side, is a vocal critic of school policies that he says adversely affect minority students.
He has sued his board colleagues in the past, and has filed several complaints against the district with the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights.
One of those complaints, filed in August over accusations of racial discrimination and retaliation, is currently under investigation by federal education managers.
School board President Heather Bennett said the board regularly discussed the lawsuit and settlement in closed meetings — Utah's open meetings law includes exceptions for pending and current litigation — including meetings where Clara was not in attendance.
During one of those meetings, she said, representatives of Utah's Division of Risk Management presented the terms of the settlement, which board members approved.
"We got the number and everybody nodded and said 'that sounds reasonable,' " she said. "[Risk Management] acts as our negotiator, but also our insurance company."
Bennett said the school district was committed to avoiding repetition of the 2010 roundup, and had been working on policy changes and the development of a training program for school resource officers. The first of those trainings was held in January, prior to the settlement agreement. And Bennett said the board will take action in the coming months on additional policy changes to protect students.
"There's nothing in the agreement, that I know of, that [Clara] actually disagrees with," Bennett said. "I completely support that settlement agreement and I'm looking forward to figuring out how to operationalize it."
Clara said he is most concerned about the process that created the settlement, and not the agreement itself.
And if the agreement depends on future action by the board, Clara said, what happens if those new policies aren't approved by board members?
"Somebody has already obligated the district to this settlement," he said. "My question is who did it, when the authority to do that rests with the board of education."
Twitter: @bjaminwood