The Lakeland School District’s board of trustees has put extra money and time into attempting to communicate with taxpayers, teachers and each other as it tackles turmoil following leadership turnover. 

The board has run through three superintendents in four years. The latest departure, Rusty Taylor, was placed on unexplained paid leave six weeks ago.

Since then, the district hired a Boise law firm to do the job of a records custodian, administering public records requests at a much higher hourly rate.

Trustees have held 18 executive sessions and 31 meetings so far this year. And they started teacher negotiations with pre-negotiation meetings where trustees rewrote the agreement.

Meanwhile, trustees have made no progress in hiring a new superintendent.

With a plant facilities levy vote coming up next week, the future of the district remains in limbo.

Delayed, redacted and expensive public records

It’s still unclear why Taylor was placed on paid administrative leave and Lakeland has not been forthcoming with public records. The district has delayed and redacted EdNews’ records requests and more recently required thousands of dollars for public records. 

Lakeland hired Boise law firm Anderson, Julian, and Hull to do the work of a district records custodian, who usually is the board clerk. 

The law firm billed EdNews $2,100 for emails — $140 per hour for redactions — with the word “public record request” in them. 

Idaho Public Records Law states that redactions should be “the per hour rate of the lowest-paid attorney” if the clerk determines an attorney is needed to make redactions. Anderson, Julian and Hull has more than 20 attorneys, according to its website. 

As recently as January, Lakeland’s clerk made email redactions. 

EdNews received 35 pages of emails between Thompson and Taylor from March 16 to March 24 at no cost. Entire emails were fully redacted. 

One request was not responded to within the required three-day window. Then the request was denied. 

Another request for tort claims related to the district was not responded to for 10 days. When EdNews inquired about the request on the 10th day, an assistant for the attorney said they thought Lakeland’s clerk had already responded that there were no such documents. 

EdNews requested the contract between Lakeland and the law firm seven business days ago and has yet to receive it.

Board meetings double over five years

Lakeland trustees have more than doubled their number of meetings in the past six years. 

Meetings used to range around 20 per year before jumping to now more than 80 a year.  A typical school board meets once or twice a month.

In 2022, trustees decided to depart the Idaho School Boards Association and start their own policy committee, the only Idaho district to do so. ISBA writes and has attorneys review model policies used by the majority of districts in Idaho. 

Lakeland’s policy committee meetings reached 50 in 2025, and in the 2025 fiscal year, cost the district at least $4,100 in attorney fees. Typically, at least one but often two trustees attend the policy meetings. Board Chair Michelle Thompson is the most frequent board member to attend.

Last year, trustees met 85 times, including committee meetings.

So far this year, Trustees have held 31 meetings. Not only are trustees meeting frequently, but they also hold executive sessions, at least 18 so far this year. 

Agendas have become less transparent on the subject of the executive session. In the past, the agenda would cite the Idaho code and information like “clerk interviews” or “safety and security.” For five executive sessions since March, the agenda only cited Idaho Code 74-206A (1) (b), which deals with staff evaluation, dismissal, or disciplinary action.

Union negotiations start with workshops

Trustees held a series of board workshops to rewrite the negotiated agreement with the union, ahead of actually meeting with the union.

Tuesday was the first meeting between the board and union members. Historically, boards select one or two trustees to participate in union negotiations along with district office staff.

Thompson and Grissom have repeatedly emphasized that the agreement is between the board and the union and therefore believe the whole board should be part of the negotiation process.

Tuesday’s meeting dealt with language and definitions and how the meetings will work procedurally. Issues like salaries and benefits and working conditions are set to be debated at future meetings. The next negotiations meeting is set for May 21.