OCR Text |
Show School Board Faces Charge of District Attorney District Attorney Patrick H. Fenton this week took steps to start proceedings against Iron County School Board members of 1958 on two counts of alleged illegal il-legal actions taken in that year. On both . accusations '.' he made dual requests, first of the county attorney to start proceedings of some type against - the board : members of that time, and second sec-ond a request of the Board president presi-dent to recover funds spent In the two Instances. The two charges.' deal " with contracting for an addition to the South Elementary School ' without with-out calling for bids and the other with the State Nepotism law in which a school board member's J wife was employed as a supervisor. supervis-or. The building addition accusation accusa-tion arises from happenings while the South Elementary school was under construction. jThe contract was originally let, j the District Atorney states, for a ; definite number of rooms and 'facilities at a stipulated total cost, but later additional rooms I were added at an approximate cost of $53,000, with the original i contractor doing the work, but without an official call tor bids. In the charge on the Nepotism law the district attorney charges that the board Illegally employed Mrs. Lillis Larson as an assistant primary supervisor , while i her husband,. Leo ( Larson, was a member of . the board. She had been teaching while. Mr. .Larson was a member of the board,, but she held !the position ' when he was' elected, ' which meant, of course, that jie had nothing to do with hiring her. ' . ' . ' "The District Attorney request ed the County 'Attorney,' Orvllle Isom, to Investigate the two alleged al-leged Irregularities and to file suitable charges. He also requested request-ed H. M. Endsley,urrent presl-dent presl-dent of the board,' to take steps to recover funds paid for the construction con-struction of the additional rooms and money paid to Mrs. Larson (Continued on Page Eight) District Attorney (Continued from First Page) for salary during the time she served as assistant supervisor. Fen ton maintained that in his opinion the funds could not be recovered from current tax funds. Attorney Fenton directed that any charge the County Attorney might file. in connection, with the building contract, be f ild against Elwyn Armstrong, Leo Larson, Dr. J. S. Prestwlch, H. M. Endsley and Evan Bayles, members mem-bers of the board in 1958. On the Nepotism charge he notified the County Attorney that no charge should be filed against II. M. Endsley, because he filed a negative nega-tive vote on the employment of Mrs. Larson. The architect on the South Elementary School states that the additional rooms were added to the original contract of the builder on a negotiated basis, but that it was done unicr a change clause in the contract, a generally general-ly accepted practice on cunlncts of this nature. Officials report that opinions approving the employment of Mrs. Larson were received both from the Attorney General and the State Superintendent of Public Instruction before action was taken. Mr. Larson was president of the board at the time, and, officials of-ficials report, did not vote on the employment of his wife. Attorney Isom states that In keeping with the request of the District Attorney, he has asked the State Attorney General for an opinion on each issue. |