1/15/25

DEMOCRATIC BOARD MAJORITY CORROBORATES VIOLATION OF THE SUNSHINE ACT AND FURTHER CORRUPTION REVEALED UNDER DEPOSITION

It’s been over a year since the Sunshine Act lawsuit was filed against the 6 Democratic Board Members and CBSD. The 2024 “Year of Corruption” began with them appointing David Conn as CBSD solicitor and immediately David took the helm acting as the “10th unelected board member” and represented CBSD on the Sunshine Act case. First, using his wife’s (Marlene Pray) connection to former DA Weintraub, he secretly emailed the DA asking for a “heads up” if a criminal complaint came in and tried to influence the DA not to press charges. Then Conn delayed the case for months, not complying with requests for discovery and wasting months writing incomprehensible dismissal arguments, only to culminate in court ordered monetary sanctions against CBSD. Discovery STILL has not been fully received following the sanctions.

Realizing that Conn was a legal liability to the district and THEMSELVES, the Democrat board majority finally removed him 9 MONTHS LATER, but not before he could broker a settlement deal for the Burgess case in the form of $400k in taxpayer dollars. On his way out, David Conn also invoiced CBSD for ~ $76,000 in legal fees which was approved by democrat board (so Sweet, Stevens Katz and Williams law firm needed to get paid for his/their “services”). Board Depositions commenced 11/24 (posted below) and BOY DID THE PLAINTIFFS FIND ADDITIONAL ILLEGAL ACTS and EVIDENCE OF DEMOCRAT CORRUPTION in the depositions! This summary is the opinion of CBSD411 after receiving these depositions through public rtk methods. We suggest you read, share and draw your own conclusions in order to make more effective decisions in the next two school board elections. After all the Democrats highest priority was transparency and we agree!

Prior to taking office in December 2023, Gibson, Foley, Reynolds, Haring and DAVID CONN (non-elected official and CBSD employees) met TWO times with CURRENT Democratic board members: Karen Smith and Mariam Mahmud and discussed board business. THIS IS ILLEGAL as no official record was kept and they DID NOT DIVULGE their meeting and contents to the OTHER three Republican board members (i.e. this is UNETHICAL, SECRETIVE, DIVISIVE). Karen Smith revealed in her deposition that in the past, she also consulted with non-CBSD employee attorney’s or citizens to discuss board business. This is illegal and unethical for divulging privileged information outside the district. Although former Republican Board President Dana Hunter revealed in her deposition that she and Smith were well trained on Sunshine act and well aware of confidentiality laws as board members, in our opinion this shows Smith clearly does not care about her oath and duty to the district.
The Democrat Board majority confirmed in deposition, that they ALONE hired David Conn: without Republican board member knowledge, WITHOUT DISCUSSING CANDIDATES publicly with taxpayers, AND implementing a PROPER district interview process (RFP). They confirmed that he was the only one “interviewed” which seems false considering he was part of their “team” in November ’23, meeting with the Democrats prior to them being sworn in. After a year of right to know requests, it is clear that David Conn was “leading” the Democrat board members and instructing Karen Smith on procedure and agenda not the other way around. He was our unelected 10th board member and all 6 of the Democrats wholeheartedly supported this secret mandate. The signal text message provided by Mrs. Gibson below confirms their collusion.
Democrats Former President Karen Smith, Dana Foley, Heather Reynolds, Mariam Mahmud and President Susan Gibson, admitted to using a third-party communication app called SIGNAL to discuss board business and communicate offline. This is ILLEGAL, unethical, untransparent to taxpayers, and a violation of their oath. It puts CBSD at great LIABILITY because their discussions are not captured on official CBSD communication formats. All board business must be captured to comply with right to know laws and insurance and bonding purposes. CLEARLY, Mrs. Smith, a 2-term board member, is so corrupt she admitted multiple times that she knew the law but admitted to breaking it: in a board meeting, via CBSD email and now in her deposition. SHE DOESN’T CARE THAT SHE IS VIOLATING THE LAW BECAUSE THE ENDS JUSTIFY THE MEANS. Rick Haring has not been disposed yet, but he is on the private signal chat below, therefore we already have confirmed that he also violated the law.
SINCE THE DEMOCRATS TOOK OFFICE, THEY USED SIGNAL TO SECRETLY DISCUSS BOARD BUSINESS AND THEN AUTMOMATICALLY DELETED THEIR CONVERSATIONS SO THAT THEY COULD NOT BE RTK’D (right to know request). Now, the only way these messages can be retrieved is through a subpoena of SIGNAL Inc. and the Democrats KNOW THIS. That’s why they continued to use it. In the Sunshine Act case, discovery was requested (in 2/24) and asked for all signal communications between board members under penalty of perjury. NOTHING WAS TURNED OVER, YET THEY ALL WILLFULLY CONTINUED TO USE THE APP after this request was made! This shows intentional non-compliance with the courts AND they SPOILATION OF EVIDENCE! They VIOLATED COURT LAW, VIOLATED THEIR OATHS OF OFFICE, AND PA RIGHT TO KNOW LAW. At what point will they resign in disgrace?
RTK also revealed that Heather Reynolds, Dana Foley, Rick Haring, Karen Smith, David Conn and Mariam Mahmud all responded “no” to the request for signal chats back in 3/24. Well NOW WE KNOW through deposition, that while this might have been technically accurate, there was no record BECAUSE THEY destroyed the evidence. So TWO TIMES, an attempt was made through rtk and court discovery to obtain these records and they lied to CBSD that they were using the app and deleted the evidence. Democrats ran on transparency, ethical conduct and promised to professionally represent CBSD. Their incompetence, reckless secretive behavior, willfulness to break the law, and collusion as a 6-member majority unit is clear and astounding. Instead of acting individually to represent their constituents, they acted POLITICALLY as a UNIT to put forth an agenda serving the interest of the Democratic Party, NOT the taxpayers, parents and students. Their willfully corrupt actions are now on full display to the community through these depositions and the Sunshine Act Case. Those of us who have had knowledge of this corruption for over a year, have called for their resignations only to be ignored. It has taken a court case and a small group of taxpayers funding this lawsuit, to get them to admit their corrupt behavior and expose the truth. The Sunshine Act case has exposed the corrupt Democratic Party and the secret manipulative tactics to gain control of school boards in order to implement their policies and spend taxpayer funding.
How do the plaintiffs really know the Democrats were talking on Signal and then destroyed the evidence? Mrs. Gibson, a licensed PA attorney, was the first board member deposed. When asked if she used signal, she looked on her phone during the deposition and confirmed that she still had one record with Heather Reynolds and Rick Haring. Being an officer of the court, with possibility of losing her PERSONAL license, the next day, Mrs. Gibson sent the text message between herself, Heather Reynolds and Rick Haring to her attorney who forwarded it onto the plaintiff’s.
- (personal commentary) Isn’t it fantastic when public officials only do the right thing when faced with personal liability or losing a professional license? Please remember that this information was already rtk’d 8 MONTHS PRIOR in 2/24 with a denial from CBSD. Mrs. Gibson seems to have violated her oath because she did not give this text thread to CBSD when requested by the rtk officer. Although, things get more confusing because there is also no record of CBSD asking Mrs. Gibson for this information either, although all board members were listed on the rtk. How curious. What is going on in CBSD?
During the deposition of Heather Reynolds, it was also discovered by the plaintiffs’ attorney, Chad Schnee, that she and CBSD counsel had a conversation offline during a break which is ILLEGAL per deposition protocols. Counsel is not allowed to advise or discuss the ongoing deposition topics with the defendant off record. Clearly Mrs. Reynolds has continual trouble discerning between moral conduct and illegal acts. With this new evidence, along with their deletion of signal chat evidence, Plaintiffs will now file a SECOND REQUEST FOR SANCTIONS IN THE SUNSHINE ACT CASE AGAINST CBSD. THIS IS UNPRECEDENTED and should be very concerning to all CBSD taxpayers!
Karen Smith’s deposition was particularly enlightening. She confirmed willful violation of the Sunshine Act because she affirmed that she knew Sunshine Act Law, yet went ahead with her amendments to the December 4th 2023 board meeting. She showed no remorse that the public was not given 24 hours’ notice of the amendments. She acknowledged that they violated law again by discussing board business at a retreat in quorum and then did not divulge the retreat publicly in the next board meeting. She admitted that Conn was hired without interview and using signal with other board members to discuss board business.
The nine depositions have confirmed that the 6 Democratic board members, especially Karen Smith, colluded together and willfully violated the Sunshine Act at the December 4th, 2023 board meeting. Furthermore, during deposition, they confirmed that they violated the Sunshine Act again by discussing board business and not reporting the contents and their quorum at a board retreat at the following board meeting.
The Sunshine Act case will continue to move forward funded by a few who need your help to fight- YOUR fight. This is unprecedented corruption that needs to be stopped. They want us to forget and look the other way by removing Conn and demoting Karen Smith. However, all 6 were complicit and colluded in all parts of the lawsuit and additional illegal acts discovered. This Democratic board has already raised taxes at the maximum level last year and they have applied to the state to do it again! Can you afford double the tax increase in just two years? Do they deserve to represent you and our community with the amount of illegal behavior and corruption going on? Do you trust them to serve CBSD with integrity, competence, and transparency? Everything 2024 has brought the exact opposite. For instance, Rick Haring’s wife and colleagues are suing the district AGAIN after their court dismissal. Isn’t this a COMPLETE CONFLICT OF INTEREST that the wife of a board member is suing the district which he helps run? One might speculate he ran in order to influence the district or gain information to help his spouse? He can’t be forced to testify against her conversations per law! How is this not recognized as being unethical?
It is astounding that the plaintiffs already had to spend over $50k to attempt to hold our board members accountable and force them to tell the truth and divulge their unethical actions. Elections matter and this case elucidates why politics and political party agendas have no place in school districts. The Democratic Party is using CBSD and taxpayers to fund their political agenda. Please share this information with your fellow taxpayers and ask them to request the resignations of the remaining 5 board members: Smith, Gibson, Foley, Haring and Reynolds.