YORK — York County purchasing agent Janet Dudley has reversed her decision to bar York County government offices and schools from conducting business with the School Board Member Alliance.
On June 28, Dudley sent a letter to Josh Hetzler, an attorney for the Founding Freedoms Law Center, which represented the SBMA in the matter, indicating the reversal of her decision.
Earlier in June, Dudley determined after consultation with the school board’s attorney, Melanie Berry, and school board Chair Kimberly Goodwin, that the SBMA was a “nonresponsible organization” and that York County officials would no longer be allowed to contract the educational policy and advocacy organization for any services.
Dudley based her initial finding on an allegation that the leadership of the SBMA instructed Goodwin in a videoconference meeting to support then-school board chair Lynda Fairman or risk losing their organizational backing. In the initial letter, Dudley wrote that the SBMA lacked “moral and business integrity.”
The SBMA denied the allegation.
Hetzler filed an appeal on behalf of the SBMA, which was founded last year as a conservative alternative to the Virginia School Boards Association, a 118-year-old policy group. Hetzler argued that Dudley should reverse her decision, “because it was made without lawful authority, was arbitrary and capricious, violated the First Amendment, and violated the Due Process Clause.”
In her response, Dudley rescinded her determination that the SBMA was non-responsible. “I have concluded that my initial determination of non-responsibility is now moot,” she wrote. “I base this on the fact that the School Board is no longer considering the professional development services that were contemplated by the SBMA contract.”
Prior to Dudley’s finding of non-responsibility, the York County school board considered purchasing policy writing services from the SBMA but ultimately voted against that measure, and the school board canceled a training at which SBMA leadership was conducting workshops.
Goodwin, Fairman and board member Zoran Pajevic purchased individual SBMA memberships.
In a news release after Dudley’s reversal, SBMA executive director Sherri Story said that “county officials went out of their way to target and disparage SBMA,” and that the organization “now deserves a public apology from York County to help restore our reputation that its actions directly harmed.”
Ben Swenson, ben.swenson05@gmail.com
