By DAVID NICHOL
T-H Staff Writer
The outcome of one school board race in St. Francis County remains undecided, and after some initial confusion, will apparently be determined by a runoff election Tuesday, Oct. 12.
After a recount on Monday, the race between Donald Story and Donald Cagle, which originally had a one-vote difference, became a tie.
In the regular school election, held Sept. 21, Story had apparently defeated Cagle by a vote of 30-29. However, Cagle requested a recount, which the county Election Commission held Monday evening.
The commission attempted to count the votes by machine. The early voting and absentee ballots came out to an 8-3 edge for Story.
It was when the vote tabulator began having trouble with the ballots that a decision was made to hand count the votes cast on election day. The hand count revealed a 27-22 edge for Cagle, resulting in a 30-30-tie after the absentee and early votes were added.
What had happened was, during the hand count, a ballot was found which the machine apparently had not read on election night. Although the machine did not read it, the commissioners who were present (Bettye Proctor and Joe Young) agreed that the ballot was marked for Cagle, and that one-vote change created the tie.
The confusion came as commissioners tried to figure out what needed to be done next.
Proctor reviewed a book of election rules, and the first rule she found stated that in the case of a tie for a school board position, the election commission would decide the winner by lot at a public meeting with both candidates present.
Then another rule was found which stated that a runoff election should be held.
There followed some discussion about what would have to be done in order to have a runoff. The rule stated that the runoff would have to be held three weeks after the election, which would be Oct. 12.
There was concern over this, because the commission members and Judy Armstrong, election coordinator, said they might not be able to get ballots printed by that time -- at least not in time for absentee and early voting. It was decided to find out if copies could be made of the ballots, and then the ballots hand-counted, since a large turnout was not expected.
Young said at the time that he would get in touch with "the powers that be" to find out exactly what needed to be done. The other school elections were certified and the meeting adjourned, with people thinking that there would probably be an Oct. 12 runoff.
However, that contact with "the powers that be" turned out not to be as helpful as hoped, at least not at first.
This morning, Young said he had been in touch with the state election board and been referred to a legal counsel, Tim Humphries, attorney for the Secretary of State's election commission. He said he had been informed that the rule which calls for deciding the winner by lot takes precedence.
"I guess we can flip a coin or draw straws or whatever they want to do," said Young, who said the two candidates were being informed. The commission had gone so far as to set a 1 p.m. public meeting for Wednesday to settle the election.
Then Young received another urgent phone call from Humphries, who told him that it was actually a runoff that was called for by law.
After being contacted again by Young, the Times-Herald contacted Humphries, who admitted freely that he made a simple mistake. "I just made a mistake, and told them the wrong statute," said Humphries. "I called them back and gave the correct information."
He said the correct statute, Arkansas Code Annotated 6-14-120 (c), says that in the case of a tie in a school board election, there is to be a runoff, three weeks after the election. He said the statute having to do with deciding a tie by lots comes into play when there are more than two candidates, no one receives a majority, and there is a tie.
"Then, they draw straws," Humphries said.
When Young was contacted again, he said the commission had decided to go ahead and have new ballots printed. He said even though the possibility of running off copies of a blank Palestine ballot had been discussed, it was decided not to go that route.
Young said the commission was gun shy about cutting corners, after recently being cited by the state election board for alleged violations during the May primary.
"We did that before and got in trouble over it," said Young. "So, we're going to have, probably, 200 printed. We could have an explosion (of votes) with this runoff."
He said absentee and early voting would begin as soon as the ballots return from the printer.
"It has always taken us a week at least, but we hope we can rush them up," Young said. "We hope to get them as quick as possible."
He said one other reason for not using copies of the original
ballot, is that the original ballot also had the school millage
on it.
By TAMARA JOHNSON
Managing Editor
Officials at a local private school were ordered to pay a former student and his parents $190,000 after a St. Francis County jury ruled Monday afternoon that the school had wrongfully dismissed the student in 2002, but that ruling will be appealed.
The lawsuit was filed in September 2002 by Ted Huffstuttler and Dorma Huffstuttler, parents of Preston Huffstuttler, against Calvary Christian School Inc., and Terral Neeley, Michael Borden, M.C. Lewellen Jr., David Rogers, individually and in their capacity as directors of the school, and Suzenne Hess.
The lawsuit claims that Preston Huffstuttler was "disenrolled" at Calvary in retaliation for the Huffstuttler's questioning of the school's accreditation and policies. The Huffstuttlers also say they had questioned the administration over the presence of a video surveillance device in a classroom/dressing room area of the school. The suit claims that "these videotapes were taken to the homes of one or more of the individual defendants and viewed for a purpose unrelated to legitimate school activities."
The lawsuit also claimed that the defendants issued false statements over the character of Preston Huffstuttler, and that Hess continually referred to Dorma Huffstuttler as "the devil."
The jury was seated in the case the afternoon of Monday, Sept. 20, with opening statements and testimony in the case on Tuesday and into Wednesday night.
Due to prior commitments by Judge L.T. Simes, the case was recessed after testimony Wednesday, and the jury reconvened on Monday afternoon to hear closing arguments and receive jury instructions, according to St. Francis County Circuit Court Clerk Bette Green, who added that the case was not heard during the county's regular circuit court term.
The jury deliberated three and a half hours before reaching a verdict on the five different claims presented to them by the court.
The jury awarded the Huffstuttlers $10,000 for breach of contract. This verdict was against the school only, according to Tony Wilcox, the attorney for the plaintiffs.
Wilcox said his clients are happy with the jury's verdict. "It's been a tough battle for Preston. He can hold his head high." Wilcox said Huffstuttler completed his education in the Wynne School District, from which he graduated in 2003. He is currently a ministry student at Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia.
The second verdict awarded $25,000 in compensatory and $75,000 in punitive damages to Preston Huffstuttler in his "claim for the tort of outrage." Wilcox said this ruling was against all the defendants.
The third verdict awarded Preston Huffstuttler $25,000 for compensatory damages and $25,000 for punitive damages on his claim for "intentional interference" with the contract. Wilcox said this ruling was against the school board members and Hess only.
On the fourth verdict, the jury awarded Preston Huffstuttler $10,000 in compensatory and $15,000 in punitive damages on his claim of "defamation by defendants." This verdict was against the school and Hess, Wilcox said.
On the fifth verdict, the jury ruled that Dorma Huffstuttler was entitled to $5,000 in punitive damages on her claim of "defamation by defendants." She was not awarded any compensatory damages on this claim. This verdict was also against Hess and the school, according to Wilcox.
Forrest City Attorney Chris Morledge, who represented Calvary in the case, said the rulings will be appealed.
"My clients' position is that this court, the lower court, never had subject matter jurisdiction to hear this case because it deals with a religious body. Under the First Amendment to the Constitution, dealing with separation of church and state, the court should not have had the power to hear this case," Morledge said.
"My defendants will certainly appeal the verdict of the
lower court and rely on that First Amendment argument and a long
line of U.S. Supreme Court cases for approximately the last 100
years which state that a civil court has no power to have subject
matter jurisdiction over a dispute within a religious body, which
Calvary is; it is a private Christian school," Morledge said.
By ALAN SMITH
T-H Staff Writer
Forrest City played host to the second annual Methamphetamine Summit for the First Judicial District on Monday.
The one-day event featured presentations from both local and state groups on the effects of methamphetamine in the area and prevention tips.
Cindi Prince, the director of the Crowley's Ridge Development Council Prevention Resource Center, explained why the summits are needed. "Today we presented information and networked with parents, churches, law enforcement and other agencies," said Prince. "Crowley's Ridge Development Council is hopeful this summit will further encourage people in the First District to fight against drug use and, in particular, methamphetamine. We are pleased with the turnout this year, but we had hoped there would be more people. Next year, if we do a third summit, we are hoping for an attendance of about 100 people.
"The main goal of the meth summit is to mobilize the community to work together to combat our meth problem along with other drug problems, alcohol and nicotine. Getting people together from different areas helps people realize that it is not just 'our' neighborhood that has these problems, it is affecting all of us."
According to Prince, local participation is key to the summits. "This year we had an impressive school group, the Mustangs Against Drugs and Tobacco," said Prince. "This is a group of local teens that are working to build a drug-free norm among their peers. The Gethesmane Missionary Baptist Church youth group was also here. They are working on creative approaches to combating drug problems in the community. Another local group was the Mothers to Better Educate Kids. Parents are so important in the prevention of their children using drugs. It was great to see these mothers who have banded together to make a difference and prevent drug use.
"We had two main speakers this year," continued Prince. "Keith Warzecha with the DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency) discussed the law enforcement side of the issue. Our keynote speaker was Dr. Rob Covington who spoke about the treatment of people addicted to meth and the highly addictive nature of the drug."
Prince stated that those who would like more information on
methamphetamine and the efforts locally to prevent usage of it
and other drugs, should contact her at 870-933-0033. Residents
may also contact Earl Anthes of Community Systems Consultants
at 870-630-3798.
Whatever method Tiffany Billingsley is using to make her Professor Pigskin selections, it is working almost to perfection.
Billingsley, of Forrest City, who won the cash prize in Week 2, has done it again.
Billingsley missed just two of last week's list of high school, college and NFL football games to claim the cash prize for the second time in three weeks.
Billingsley missed the Osceola-Harrisburg high school game and the Titans-Jaguars NFL contest.
A stipend created earlier this year for parent facilitators in the Palestine-Wheatley School District will be enacted a year earlier after a decision by the district's board Monday night.
Members of the board voted 4-0 to allow the district to move the start date to July 1 of this year for the stipend instead of July 1 of next year. According to PWSD Superintendent John Manning, the board had to approve the measure to be in compliance with state law.
"Earlier this year, the board approved a stipend for our parent facilitators on each of the district's campuses. So that we can be in compliance with state law, that stipend was scheduled to begin next year. The only way that we could actually begin the stipend this school year was through a vote from the Parent Committee. They voted to move the date up to July 1 of this year, and it is my recommendation that the board approve the change," Manning said.
Manning told board members that the stipend will be paid in December when all other stipends are paid. Each of the district's three campuses have a parent facilitator who serves as a liaison between the school and the parent.
In other business, the board approved a contract with a Little Rock Hospital for the tuition of special needs students that might need residential care. According to Manning, an agreement has been reached with Pinnacle Point Hospital in Little Rock which will allow any special needs children to be housed at a cost of $50 per day for tuition. The contract with the hospital required a board vote to be approved.
Board members also voted to amend several district policies in order to come into compliance with Arkansas Department of Education requirements and approved the annual financial report and budget for the 2003-2004 school year. At the recommendation of Manning, board members also named the board president and secretary as disbursing officers for the 2004-2005 fiscal year.
Also at Manning's recommendation, board members agreed to allow 190-day employees a 10th sick day per year. Board members agreed to hire four new employees, Janet Cagle, Toby Hayes, Linda Anderson and Tony Pierce, and accepted the resignations of two employees, Gracie Williams and Versie Lambert.