Stonington — During a special meeting Friday night, Board of Education members agreed to meet with their attorney to discuss how to respond to the Connecticut Freedom of Information Commission’s unanimous decision this week that ordered school officials to provide The Day with an unredacted copy of a 2019 memo detailing a female student’s complaint about the behavior of former teacher Timothy Chokas.

The board had been slated to discuss concerns by some board members about how school officials, such as Superintendent of Schools Van Riley and the board’s attorney, handle Freedom of Information issues, the legal costs they have incurred and related issues.

Board member Jack Morehouse said board members read in The Day about FOI developments involving the school system and “are not attached to the actions being taken” by school officials.

Board members Craig Esposito and Farouk Rajab said the school board was exposing itself to legal liability by discussing the issue without having the board attorney and Riley present. They were not available for the meeting.

But board member Alisa Morrison pointed out the FOI Commission upheld The Day’s appeal.

“We do not need a legal opinion to tell us that,” she said.

Asked this week when the school system would comply with the commission’s order and turn over the memo to The Day, school board attorney Kyle McClain wrote in an email, “that minimally, the record at issue in that matter will not be released until the Commission’s final decision and order is issued in writing according to the Commission’s procedures.”

Riley and the school system also have the option of appealing the commission’s ruling to the state Appellate Court., which would require the school system to spend tens of thousands of dollars more.

The district already has spent tens of thousands of dollars over the past year unsuccessfully fighting The Day’s appeal. Last week The Day filed a Freedom of Information request for legal bills related to Chokas that the school system has amassed since Jan. 1. Last year, the school system spent more than $96,000 on Chokas-related legal bills.

New board Chairman Frank Todisco said Friday he would instruct board attorney Nick Grello to not take any action on the case until he meets with the board.

Morrison said it would help if board members could read the unredacted memo in executive session. Rajab stressed that protecting students was his top priority.

Neither the name or initials of the girl who reported the incident, nor those of the girl who was touched inappropriately, appear in the unredacted memo the FOI commission has ordered the school system to release.

Riley and McClain argued unsuccessfully before the FOI Commission that state and federal laws allow the details of the student’s complaint in the memo to be redacted because the document is an education record of the student. But The Day argued that the student’s name is not in the memo and thus it is not a student record but instead a record of teacher misconduct, which must be released under state law.

The redacted portion of the memo from high school Principal Mark Friese to Riley contains a statement by an unidentified female student who alleged that on numerous occasions, Chokas touched another female student and made comments that made her feel uncomfortable. That incident led to Chokas being allowed to resign with his full salary of $81,396 and benefits through the end of the school year. The district also agreed not to fire him or disclose any information concerning his employment to anyone, except as required by law.

Many former students have told The Day and posted on social media that Chokas repeatedly touched female students inappropriately and made inappropriate comments to them dating back to 2004. In addition, board members split Friday on whether to conduct a planned discussion on the process it will use to conduct the upcoming review of Riley after some board members expressed concern about the legality of discussing the process in public.

At one point during Friday's meeting, Rajab and Esposito said they would leave the meeting after an initial vote to table the discussion failed because they maintained it would be an illegal conversation involving a specific employee.

Morehouse said the discussion was about changing the process for whoever held the position going forward, because he said the current process is “far from perfect” because not all board members' comments about the superintendent’s performance are reflected in the completed document. Earlier this month, Morehouse suggested the evaluation be done in public but Riley’s contract states he has to agree to the process.

But Todisco convinced board members to let him get clarification on the issue from the board attorney and then set up a meeting with Riley so the board can come to consensus on how to conduct the evaluation. Todisco stressed the board could discuss the process of evaluating a position but not an individual employee.

At the beginning of Friday’s meeting, the board voted to appoint Todisco, the former school board chairman, as the new chairman.

Todisco replaces Rajab, who has served as acting chairman, following the resignation of Republican Alexa Garvey from the board this month.

Todisco served seven years on the board, five as chairman, before stepping down in 2018, citing job and family responsibilities and increased work. The board also appointed Heidi Simmons as its secretary.  

Todisco was appointed earlier this week to one of the two vacant seats on the board created when Garvey and Democrat Candace Anderson resigned. The board also appointed Gordon Lord but plans to redo that vote next week because of a technical problem in the way the vote was conducted. 

j.wojtas@theday.com