BAMBERG -- A Columbia attorney with 25 years of experience litigating South Carolina's Freedom of Information Act said Wednesday that members of the Bamberg-Ehrhardt (Bamberg District 1) Board of Trustees acted illegally when they scheduled an executive session to discuss budget plans.

Representing some of the parents of the district, attorney Jay Bender said trustees also acted illegally if, as some parents believe, the elected school officials have been meeting without first notifying the public of those meetings.

"Every time you meet in secret, every time you take an action that's illegal, you erode public confidence in what you're doing," Bender said, "and in these difficult times, that's the worst thing you can do."

Bamberg District 1, along with many school districts around South Carolina, is experiencing a crippling budget deficit that has trustees weighing alternative ways to cut costs, including the possible closure of at least one school that would eliminate 16 positions. Another proposal would keep all the schools in the district open, resulting in the loss of possibly 19 to 20 positions.

The agenda for Wednesday's meeting included an executive session to discuss employment matters.

Richard Carroll Elementary School employee Harriet Coker of Bamberg reminded the board Wednesday that they were "elected to do what's best for everybody. What disturbs me the most is that nobody hears any discussion. If you say you're going into executive session to discuss employment, how can you discuss employment when you haven't even passed a budget and you haven't decided what you're going to do? You need to discuss and justify your decisions in front of these people who elected you and are entitled by law to hear your discussion."

Cindy Hurst of the Richard Carroll Elementary faculty said teachers and school personnel have been under pressure recently not knowing what the school board will decide.

"This is extremely difficult for all of us," Hurst said. "Put yourself in our shoes. We are walking around with knives over our heads not knowing who and when we'll have to be let go. If we knew what was going to happen, we could deal with it a lot better. We know we're going to have to make some tough economic decisions. Please share them with us as soon as possible."

Ehrhardt Mayor Billy Stanley said that the closing of the Ehrhardt Elementary School, one of the proposals being explored by the board, would have a catastrophic effect on the town, the community and the children that the school is there to serve.

"If you do vote on this issue tonight," Stanley said, "I would certainly ask that you give it your most careful consideration."

June Kemp of Bamberg told the school trustees that rumors "are circulating that perhaps several of our board members had meetings that were not announced, that were not public, to discuss the budget. I certainly hope that this has not transpired."

She told District 1 Board Chairman John Bamberg, "I thought that perhaps you should look into this. I think there might be some question as to the legality of this."

Bamberg said he would address Kemp's concerns later in the meeting.

Trustee Dr. Dale Padgett then made a statement he said he felt "the board could agree on."

"Your not knowing the plans yet," he told the parents, "(is) because we don't know all the plans. That's going to be presented to us tonight as part of employment," Padgett said. "We need to hear plans that we have asked the administration to get together, and we're going to hear those four plans in the same context of employment. All these things are going hand in hand. Once we hear it, once we come back into open session, we can comment a little bit more about what we've heard, what the plans were and how we feel about it."

Someone in the audience questioned the legality of the type of discussion Padgett described that would occur behind closed doors, and Chairman Bamberg responded to a question about the budget, stating that "no budget has been acted upon."

"It was just mailed to us from the administration," Bamberg said, "but we have not even discussed it."

Before adjourning to go behind closed doors, Attorney Jay Bender challenged the legality of the executive session.

"I've heard several things here tonight that cause me to believe that the executive session proposed is illegal, and I'll be specific about that because the law requires you to be specific. You have identified it on your agenda as 'executive session for employment matters.' The law says you may go into executive session for discussion of employment of an employee. What I understand from the comment here is that you're going to discuss four plans," Bender said. "Those four plans sound to me like tentative budgets. You can not, under the law, discuss budgets in executive session."

Bender said that concerns had also been voiced that there had been a meeting of a committee -- whether an official committee or an ad hock committee -- of a quorum of the board to form an alternative budget.

"If that is so and if those meetings took place, and if they took place without public notice, and if they took place without being in public, they are illegal," Bender said. "If those things have happened and they are found out to have happened, then I think all of your actions will be subject to criticism or perhaps legal action. I think the best thing to do is not have an executive session tonight because you have already publicly announced that your purpose is illegal."

Bender said the penalty for violating the Freedom of Information Act, first offense, was a $100 fine and 30 days in jail.

With a motion from Padgett and a second from Trustee Sheri Seigler, however, the board then went into executive session.

In response, District 1 Superintendent Phyllis Schwarting said, "I just want to go on record as saying that we have been advised not to do this but I will certainly relinquish to the board."

The trustees then went behind closed doors for an hour and a half. After twenty minutes, Padgett left the session and returned to the Bamberg-Ehrhardt High School Library were the public waited for open session to resume.

At 9:45 p.m., the board members and Schwarting returned to the B-E library where the majority of the initial crowd still waited.

"During executive session, the board discussed personnel issues concerning the district administration as well as several teachers," Bamberg said. "The budget was not discussed but will be discussed Monday night at the regular board meeting during the public session."

The Bamberg District 1 school board will hold its regular monthly meeting at 7:30 p.m. this Monday, April 28, at the Richard Carroll Elementary School in Bamberg.

T&D Correspondent Minnie Miller can be reached by writing to her at 138 Nature's Trail, Bamberg, SC 29003.

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