The Carroll County Board of Education and the superintendent’s office spent nearly $400,000 on legal fees fiscal 2023, which is nearly double its annual retainer, according to an analysis of the school system’s budget and legal fee data.
The school board has approved the same retainer, or flat fee, of $200,000 since fiscal 2021 to Pessin Katz Law P.A. to use its legal services each year. The system retains the Baltimore-area firm for consultations on decisions from Superintendent Cynthia McCabe and the school board. The firm also provides representation when those decisions are appealed, according to Assistant Superintendent of Operations Jonathan O’Neal.
In fiscal 2023, the school board, superintendent and superintendent’s staff — the entities allowed to engage with the firm, according to O’Neal — spent about $390,875 on legal fees.
Total spending in fiscal 2024, which ended June 30, was $306,803.74. In 2022, legal fees totaled $334,410.86; and in 2021, $283,155.95.
When asked if the rise in fees paid in 2023 was unusual or pointed to anything in particular, O’Neal said, “Honestly no, not sitting here now. I remember being slightly higher than this year but I don’t remember being $190,000 [higher] than this year. … One due process proceeding could cost $25,000 to $30,000. So, to me that would not ring an alarm bell.”
A single due process proceeding does not always cost that much, he said, but it wouldn’t be unusual.
“I’m not suggesting that every special ed due process matter would be in that range, but they easily can be. That wouldn’t be unusual at all. It would depend on where something gets mediated out on a certain stage in the process as to how much it might be,” O’Neal said.
In a written statement, a Carroll County Public School System spokesperson said the retainer is an “agreed upon fee with a law firm to reserve their legal services for a period of time.” The spokesperson added that “the amount of the retainer is not an estimate of what we believe our actual fees may be.”
“Actual total legal fees in any given year reflect the actual amount of time we engage our attorneys,” the spokesperson wrote. “Our legal services needs vary from year to year depending on the volume and types of situations that may arise in a given year, for which we need to engage our attorneys.”
O’Neal said, “it would be abnormal if we’ve ever not exceeded retainer.” The retainer isn’t a budgetary goal that staff members attempt to go under, O’Neal added, it’s just the nature of the agreement between the Board of Education, superintendent, and superintendent staff and PK Law, the retained firm.
“I can tell you for sure that we have not been under retainer in any year I’ve worked here,” said O’Neal, who has worked with the school system since 2010. “I would be stunned if we ever were before I worked here, either. I would think that would be true for other school systems or large businesses that have outside counsel.”
Legal fees can accumulate depending on whether the relate to consultations on new laws or restrictions, O’Neal said. The fees also grow if there are disputes with unions, grievances from employees, contract questions or the Board of Education or superintendent’s office need to be represented when decisions are appealed by parents or employees, he added.
“PK Law provides us with a full array of legal services for all of our educational and operational needs as a school system, and have a well-established record of success in Carroll County and other Maryland boards of education,” the spokesperson wrote in a statement. “They are also one of a handful of law firms vetted and approved by the Maryland Association of Boards of Education Legal Services Association.”
Once the $200,000 retainer is spent, all fees are discounted by 20% on an hourly rate, according to O’Neal.
Special education matters typically incur the most legal fees, O’Neal added, because of disputes that arise from individualized education plans for students or if a parent is dissatisfied with a service or placement. Questions of law from superintendent staff and school board members would be classified as general legal fees, he said.
Appeals of Board of Education decisions also can drive up legal fees, O’Neal said. Recent appeals include one in January 2023, when the Maryland State Board of Education upheld Carroll’s decision to dismiss Stephanie Brown’s appeal of its vote to prohibit the display of LGBTQ+ Pride flags on school properties. Another appeal, dismissed by the state on July 23, challenged Carroll’s new policy that bans books that contain “sexually explicit content.”
Wendy Novak, a Carroll County parent, also filed an appeal against the Board of Education for its decision to exclude two books from the curriculum about different kinds of families. Novak also filed a Title IX complaint for board members Steve Whisler and Donna Sivigny’s comments in opposition of the books. The state Board of Education dismissed an appeal in 2022 regarding the school system’s adjusted COVID-19 protocols and one in 2021 asking for a mask mandate in Carroll public schools.
There are also a few cases from the early 2000s, 2019 and 2020 about student placement, a student’s suspension, and assistant and custodian terminations.
Carroll’s Board of Education gained statewide attention after members of the county’s Moms for Liberty chapter requested certain books to be removed from school shelves in August 2023. As of April, the Board of Education banned two more books, making a total of 11 banned from school library shelves.
All of the spending over retainer has been paid, O’Neal added. Carroll’s Board of Education approves the spending over retainer at the end of every fiscal year in June. The school board approved a $50,800 increase allocated toward legal fees in May. Carroll County commissioners also increased the money allocated toward the school system in May.
The Carroll County Times also contacted PK Law for comment and information. Superintendent McCabe and O’Neal instructed the firm to not respond to requests for information and comment, O’Neal said in an interview.
