At their June 30th meeting our school board took a problematic turn voting 5-2 to add a second law firm to the APS payroll. Here are the facts about the Kallman Group. They have two attorneys on staff (father and son) who have no experience representing public schools. They are considered an extremist group willing to use our tax dollars to fuel their agendas.

Contrast this with the firm representing APS since 1960. Thrun Law has 30+ attorneys and have been counsel to the vast majority of public school systems in Michigan since the 1940s. They are, as our superintendent says, “risk averse”… a positive attribute when tax dollars supporting education are at risk.

So why add the Kallman group to the payroll? Why incur additional expenses for legal counsel from a group with no experience representing the interests of public education? Board member Dziesinski has relentlessly sought a firm that would contradict advice from Thrun and ACLU attorneys about instituting, what has become known as, the “bathroom policy.” Thrun and ACLU unequivocally state the policy violates the Michigan Constitution and would incite an expensive and drawn-out lawsuit. Does the board plan to institute the bathroom policy, thus triggering a lawsuit that would financially kneecap APS, using Kallman as counsel?

Also worrisome, at the upcoming July 28th meeting the board will vote on whether to retain Thrun’s contract. For the past several years board member Lawson has voted to terminate this contract. Will Lawson do the same at the July meeting with MacArthur, Costain, and Dziesinski joining this ill-advised path? This group of four has shown they are incapable of independent thought and clearly motivated by dangerous personal agendas. Destructive combination for APS.

A Tale of Two Law Firms … and we are not in the best of times.

DIANE O’CONNOR

Alpena