Volusia County School Board attorney earns low score in evaluation

Ormond Beach Observer
News

The Volusia County School Board evaluated its attorney on Tuesday, Aug. 30, and gave him a total score of 45 out of 95.

School Board Chair Ruben Colon, who gave Attorney Ted Doran an overall score of 9 out of 19, called the results "concerning."

"You should be given the opportunity to adjust them with each of us and see if we can make it better," Colon said. "There's a lot of work to be done. Forty-five out of 95 is not good, and I don't think anybody in this room can say that's good."

The School Board decided on an evaluation tool for its attorney during a workshop on July 26. The evaluation on Aug. 30 marked the first time in 40 years that the school board had evaluated its attorney, though a policy had been in the books since 1974 (last updated in 2003) stating that the retention of the board attorney should be placed and reviewed at the first meeting in July every year.

The only board member to give Doran all 19 points on his evaluation was Linda Cuthbert. School Board member Anita Burnette gave him a 4, Jamie Haynes a 2 and Carl Persis gave him an 11.

Burnette said that Doran didn't treat all of the board members equally, sharing that she'd experienced situations where she had been "intimidated" on the phone, and said some of his communication had been "rough" when directed to some of the board members.

"I don't feel like I can trust our attorney to have a professional conversation because of things that were said that I've trusted him to keep between us at a meeting," Burnette said.

Haynes shared an incident where she said she was threatened by Doran and received a text message "trying to skew what was said and turn it into a different type of statement." Haynes claimed Doran also reached out to one of her family members in his attempts to speak with her, a move she said she didn't feel was appropriate, and that he sent an email to the board when he was not able to get in contact with her.

"There's a number of things here that are based on misinformation. It needs to be said that not one of you has ever privately or publicly criticized me before tonight, and not one of you called me and asked me any questions about any of the decisions that you were making."

Ted Doran, Volusia County School Board attorney

"So I have some issues with trust, professionalism and being threatened," Haynes said. "If I were a principal and a teacher threatened me, how would I take that? That's kind of the situation we're in."

Conversely, Cuthbert said she had never had a problem with Doran during the eight years she has been on the board. She wondered if her fellow board members had brought up their issues to Doran in private to find a resolution, and said she was happy with Doran's performance.

Cuthbert added that she recently heard the board likened to a "firing squad" because of the firings of the past three superintendents, and it embarrassed her.

"This has to stop," Cuthbert said. "We have to be a model for our students. We have to work things out."

Persis didn't cite his reasons for giving Doran a score of 11, but said he respected each of the board member's opinions.

Colon said he found it concerning that there was a policy in the books that outlined the school board attorney's contract should be on a yearly renewal, and that the board approved a previously approved three-year contract. He also read his concerns regarding communication, saying that everyone was entitled to the same information, and his concerns regarding professionalism, adding that the board expects the attorney to stand by the decisions made by the board.

"In our roles, we are often confronted with opinions and personalities and ensuring an even tone during public meetings is my expectation, even for myself, even when somebody is sitting there saying things that are not necessarily true," Colon said.

He considered the evaluation as a "baseline assessment," and said that Doran should have the opportunity to respond and address their concerns.

After about 40 minutes of discussion, Doran spoke, saying he had worked under about 20 different board members and that he believed they all would have given him a perfect score on the evaluation.

"So we obviously have a problem because 20 board members and superintendents used terms like, 'You're the biggest blessing that ever happened to me,' and so I look forward to talking and meeting with each of you individually," Doran said. "... There's a number of things here that are based on misinformation. It needs to be said that not one of you has ever privately or publicly criticized me before tonight, and not one of you called me and asked me any questions about any of the decisions that you were making."

What he understood from the evaluation, Doran said, was that none of the board members had a "good handle" on what his job was for the last two decades, because much of what the board focused on in the evaluation tool — which Doran was present for as it was being created — were things he wasn't previously required to do.

"Every board member I've ever worked under would tell you that I did everything in my power to protect them both legally and politically," Doran said. "And that's true today. I don't want to publicly air or respond in a public way to some of these things — I would rather explain them to you privately, and if you still feel there's an issue, then we can come back and talk about it."

The topic of his evaluation and the corresponding School Board Policy 103 will be discussed in a future workshop. Colon encouraged Doran to set up meeting with each board member, with a mediator if necessary.