04-04-2025
Scranton School Board to vote on legal services Monday
Scranton school directors will vote to appoint a solicitor for the district on Monday while formally accepting the resignation of a former director.
The district submitted a request for proposals for legal services in February. Two firms — Joyce, Carmody & Moran PC of Pittston and Bethlehem-based King, Spry, Herman, Freund & Faul, the district's current firm — met the proposal deadline, according to a listing for the district on
Superintendent Erin Keating, Ed.D., said in an email Thursday that legal services were part of the second tier of requests for proposals the district issued.
'The RFP for legal services was made public, and the process adhered strictly to the Board Operating Guidelines (BOG) regarding the hiring of a solicitor,' she said.
John Freund remains the district's solicitor, Keating said.
At last Monday's work session, board President Ty Holmes confirmed he instructed the district's administration to begin negotiations with Joyce, Carmody & Moran to provide general and special education legal services.
Director Tara Yanni said the board should appoint a firm that is the most cost effective with the most experience in public education law.
Yanni, comparing the proposals, said the firm the majority of directors want to go with costs $240 an hour, while the other is $200 an hour. She also said the firm that wasn't selected serves 32 districts and has the most experience.
'For that reason I am not in favor of the firm desired by the majority of this board,' she said.
Director Catherine Fox pointed out an attorney from the firm favored by the board majority sent a letter to the board in July 2023 opposing them taking action on any significant contracts, including ones related to the district's execution of government functions — such as legal services, administration and other functions under school code — if they didn't need to be renewed or reconsidered until after a new board assumes office.
She wondered if the board could take action on legal services before the contract for the current firm ends in December and a new board is sworn in. Fox also asked that a work-based retainer method be implemented to save the district money.
She requested the board deny both bids as the firms aren't based in the city and that the bid process be redone with the requirement that firms be in Scranton.
Fox also asked the board to find a solicitor that specializes in ethics or submit for an advisory opinion through the state Ethics Commission because of a conflict of interest between members of the firm favored by the board and other roles they hold in the city.
'I believe that this will ensure we that we do our due diligence,' she said. 'There's a host of concerns that have been raised and they cannot be answered by just us or the people at the table, they have to be raised by somebody with higher knowledge than we hold.'
The school board hired Joyce, Carmody & Moran PC as its labor counsel in 2018, but the board shifted those responsibilities to the firm Sweet, Stevens, Katz & Williams in 2020. The board has used the district's current firm, King, Spry, Herman, Freund & Faul, since 2022, when a Lackawanna County judge ordered the district to rebid for its bus contract. That year, Dunmore-based Pete's Garage filed suit after learning the district negotiated with Krise Transportation of Punxsutawney without giving other bidders the same opportunity.
In addition, directors will also vote to accept Katie Gilmartin's resignation as director. Gilmartin, who had served on the board since 2017 and was board president in 2020 and 2021, submitted her resignation Friday. She did not provide a reason for leaving the board in her resignation letter to Holmes, which The Times-Tribune obtained through a Right to Know request.
'You have my very best wishes for the continued success of the Scranton School District,' Gilmartin wrote in her letter.
She declined to comment earlier this week on why she stepped down in the final year of her second four-year term. Directors plan to advertise for the vacancy after voting to accept her resignation.
