Tribuneâs Open Meeting Violation Lawsuit against school gets hearing on June 8
On May 28, Custer County Secondary School Principal Ren Olson announced on the schoolâs website that she would be resigning to spend more time with family, citing her age and being almost 70 years old as the reason for her sudden departure. The letter was also posted on Facebook, eliciting mixed reactions from school staff.
Jules Marie, substitute teacher at the school, stated, âAs a substitute at the school, the most honest comment I can write is that every middle school teacher and middle school sub is thankful she resigned due to her unwillingness to discipline middle school troublemakers.â
A parent, Megan Agnew, commented, âWow… Not that I didn’t like Ren, but it seems like knowingly temporary solutions keep getting put into place here. Only to leave the staff and students getting used to a new admin every 1-2 years. They deserve a better plan when it comes to hiring. How disappointing to be left in this position yet again.â
While not officially announced yet, the Tribune also received word that Superintendent Kyle Hebberd announced his resignation effective at the end of June due to unforeseen family health issues. Hebberdâs contract had been renewed earlier this year. Hebberdâs resignation means that the Custer County School District has had 7 Superintendents in the past 10 years, with half a dozen interim superintendents as well.
Hebberd replaced former Superintendent Thom Peck in May of 2025 after the School Board shopped around for months to fire Peck after he had refused to resign.
In April of 2025, Tribune publisher Jordan Hedberg filed a lawsuit alleging that the School Board held an illegal Executive Session on February 11, 2025, during which they agreed to fire Peck in secret. Over the past year, the School Board has fought the lawsuit and refused to release the executive session recording. Even though the School Board has never met or voted on the multiple offers to settle the matter by the Tribune, the board has decided together outside of public meetings to appeal an early ruling of District County Judge Lauren Swan, who ordered the recording to be provided to her so she could listen to it. That appeal was quickly denied. A hearing on the subject is set for Monday, June 8, at which Judge Swan will rule on whether the executive session convened on February 11, 2025, was illegal under state law.
Executive sessions are meetings for elected officials that Colorado state law allows to be held outside of public view. Broadly speaking, Colorado voters have repeatedly stated in ballot elections that public business should be held in public. Known as the Colorado Sunshine Act, the Colorado Open Meeting Law was passed by ballot in 1972 and has been strengthened since that time. However, while the Colorado Open Meeting Law directs most public business to be discussed in public, the law makes three broad exceptions. The first is for an employee matter, as employees have certain rights to privacy regarding what is made public. The second is for receiving legal advice, as client-attorney privileges are protected communications. Lastly, a negotiation strategy for actions such as buying real estate or working on a contract. The Colorado Open Meeting Law makes clear that in executive sessions, a decision cannot be made by the elected officials to be rubberstamped in the public meeting.
During the February 11, 2025, meeting, the School Board entered an executive session to discuss the performance evaluation of Thom Peck. However, after the evaluation was finished, Board President Reggie Foster asked Peck if he would resign. Peck, surprised by this unexpected move by the board, said no. The board continued to pressure him to resign during the executive session and stated that if he did not resign, they would fire him at the next meeting.
As reported before, the School Board can vote to terminate Peckâs contract at will, but such discussion must take place in public, a reality that the board had been avoiding because Peck had proven to be popular amongst most of the students, parents, staff, and the general public. Because the executive session was supposed to be about a performance review and not a negotiation to force Peck to resign, the board allegedly broke the Colorado Open Meeting Law, as actual negotiations cannot take place in these sessions, only negotiation strategy. Additionally, the meeting was not properly noticed as it was only about an employee review, not an effort to force Peck to resign.
The latest resignations come at a time when about a quarter of the existing staff is leaving, retiring, or whose contracts were not renewed.
â Jordan Hedberg
