School board appoints interim attorney, restructures legal team

In a special meeting during which school board members clashed with each other and some even with Supt. Dr. Denise Carlin, the School District of Lee County School Board appointed a new interim board attorney and general counsel, following the resignation of longtime attorney Kathy Dupuy-Bruno.

Robert Dodig, assistant school board attorney for human resources, was appointed to take the interim position of board attorney and general counsel during the meeting. A veteran attorney with the district, he previously had held the position of board attorney.

School board members clashed over the handling of Dupuy-Bruno’s resignation and a proposed reorganization of the district’s legal staff by Carlin.

Dupuy-Bruno had submitted a resignation letter to the school district last month though she had still offered to provide her legal services until she starts her new position in Broward County this month or in March.

Rather than allow her to continue working as the district attorney and allow for her to continue providing consultations with school board members, school board Vice Chair Bill Ribble made a motion to have the resignation take effect Jan. 23 on the day that a special meeting of the school board was called to handle the resignation. The resolution meant Dupuy-Bruno would no longer be working for the district but would continue to draw her salary through March 13 or earlier if she begins her job in Broward County before that date.

Board members Melisa Giovannelli and Debbie Jordan voted against the motion, expressing alarm at the haste and manner in which her resignation was being handled.

Jordan asked why Ribble and the administration wouldn’t want to honor Dupuy-Bruno’s offer to continue making her services available as she referenced in her resignation letter. Board Chair Armor Persons said he had the same question.

“If we cut ties today, you are cutting ties today, which means that anything she may be working on she would not have the opportunity to share that with whoever is coming in to that place for the transition,” Jordan said.

“That’s correct,” Ribble said. Ribble said he had consulted with the district’s attorneys on the matter.

Giovanelli said she was taken aback by Ribble’s motion and didn’t understand the need for making a motion to change the resignation to take effect immediately. “I don’t see what the rush is,” Giovanelli said. “I am confident that she would continue to do her job.”

Giovanelli said she wanted a conversation with Dupuy-Bruno and Carlin. “I am surprised,” Giovanelli said.

Giovanelli said she had a planned meeting scheduled for Dupuy-Bruno to get an update on litigation the following week. “I had a lot of questions I was saving,” she said. Giovanelli said Dupuy-Bruno should have been afforded an opportunity to meet with the board.

Giovanelli asked Carlin if all of Dupuy-Bruno’s computer access and office access would be shut down after the board votes on the resignation.

“We will have that conversation. We are listening for the vote by the board,” Carlin said. “At that point we will have a conversation.”

Carlin said she would take direction from the board and then have a conversation with Dupuy-Bruno.

“We will handle that in accordance like every other employee and those services would be discontinued,” Carlin said. Carlin said the permissions of Dupuy-Bruno would be discontinued once there is a transition.

“I don’t want her services cut off,” Giovanelli said.

Jordan said she was confused at the administration’s handling of Dupuy-Bruno’s resignation. “This is our board attorney,” Jordan said. “I know we keep saying through the superintendent and no disrespect for the superintendent but this is something that goes through the board. They are our employees,” Jordan said. “She is in a conference right now representing Lee County (School District) and what does that look like? You are going to get a phone call ‘you are in the conference right now but you no longer work for them.’ That to me is so wrong.”

Ribble said he believed the school board has its own responsibilities.

“We didn’t make the decision for her to take the job in Broward County, that was her decision, and I respect that decision,” Ribble said. “But I also respect our fiduciary responsibility as school board members to manage the operations here at the school district.”

Board member Jada Langford-Fleming said the school district has other talented attorneys who can do the job. “It would be a seamless transition,” Langford-Fleming said.

Jordan said the district’s other attorneys have been working in other departments and expressed concern as to whether the district’s other attorneys have all of the information regarding the litigation the district is involved in.

Ribble said the school district has subcontracted with 13 attorneys. “We have a big bench of legal support,” he said.

Carlin said that while the district’s attorneys are hired by the school district she is responsible for overseeing them. “I am responsible for anything that happens,” she said. Carlin said there are numerous cases the district has outsourced to other attorneys. “We also have a very talented legal team,” Carlin said.

Carlin said she believed the town’s legal staff could handle the additional work along with the support staff that includes two paralegals. “I know we have the right legal team in place,” she said.

Persons said he had a couple other concerns. “I wouldn’t want any one coming into my office without any notice because she is not even in town. If her last day is today, that means whoever takes her position will be in her office at the latest Monday. That worries me when she has personal items there,” Persons said. “I have personal stuff in my office.”

Ribble said he believes Dupuy-Bruno will have time to clean out her office. Persons said he wanted an understanding that there would be enough time for Dupuy-Bruno to pick up her personal belongings.

“While this may be common it’s really not common to my knowledge that you say ‘resign and while you are away’ someone says ‘we are replacing you tomorrow.”

Persons said the nature of the resolution by Ribble, which was supported by Carlin, was “so abrupt and so quickly, that is usually done when someone has done something.”

Persons said he was still waiting on a list of all the litigation the district has that he was expecting to receive from Dupuy-Bruno the following week. “We have been lightly briefed on those but I am concerned,” Persons said.

Persons said he doesn’t know how much litigation the school district has currently. “I don’t think any of us know,” Persons said.

“I do have that list and I can provide that to you,” Carlin said.

The school district has also been in a prolonged conflict resolution process with the Town of Fort Myers Beach over Fort Myers Beach Elementary School, which was closed by the school district in 2024 after flooding from Hurricane Milton. The town has made numerous unsuccessful attempts to compel the school district to repair and reopen the school. At a mediation session in November with Carlin, Dupuy-Bruno and Ribble at a Bonita Springs Church, Fort Myers Beach Mayor Dan Allers requested to have the school district cede the school to the town to be operated as a charter school along with a request for millions of dollars in funding. Dupuy-Bruno had a major role in crafting the interlocal agreement that Fort Myers Beach Elementary School parents were relying on to get the school back open though the school board has not shown any willingness over the past several months to reopen the school.

“It leaves a bad taste in my mouth to do it so abruptly there to do it for no cause other than to just move it along,” Persons said. “I have full confidence that she would have kept working until her last day.”

Board member Samuel Fisher supported Ribble’s motion. “She made the decision to leave so this is not on us,” he said.

Despite the concerns expressed by Persons, he joined the majority of the school board in a 5-2 vote to accept Dupuy-Bruno’s resignation and to make it effective at the close of business on Jan. 23 rather than the extra time she had offered to provide to the school district.

“So we are going to pay her and we are going to pay another attorney at the same time?” Giovanelli asked. “Is that what I am understanding?”

Further clashes followed over a proposal by the administration to change how the school district’s attorneys are organized and managed, which the school board passed by a vote of 5-2.

The new structure will include a school board attorney, operating under the school board, and chief staff attorney, operating under the superintendent.

Under the new model, a new chief staff attorney position would be created who would report directly to the superintendent, while a school board attorney would continue to work for the school board. Previously, Dupuy-Bruno acted as the general counsel and school board attorney.

As part of the reorganization, the assistant school board attorneys would now report directly to the newly-created chief staff attorney who works under the superintendent.

Jordan and Persons voted against the reorganization of the school district’s legal department.

Giovanelli had also argued against the move, warning of what she viewed as the pitfalls of rearranging the structure of the school district’s attorneys. She warned that a move back to the old setup of attorneys could potentially leave the school board in the dark as she said previously happened under a previous administration.

Carlin reassured Giovanelli that her office would be transparent and that the school board would have equal access to the district’s attorneys under the reorganization.

Giovanelli credited Dupuy-Bruno with putting together the district’s legal team though she said that with Carlin’s reassurance she would support the new direction for the school district’s attorneys.

Giovanelli said that under the old structure under a previous administration, the district had to pay out on expensive litigation matters that she believes was a result in part of the school board not being made fully aware of issues that she said former school district attorneys and a former superintendent were aware of.

Board member Samuel Fisher said he supported the new structure and said the board couldn’t act out of fear. “If we see this doesn’t work down the line, we can change it,” Fisher said. Fisher asked Carlin to clarify that there would be no obstruction of the school board through the new chief staff attorney.

Jordan questioned why the school board was being asked to approve the new reorganization.

“Who asked for this presentation because I didn’t recall any of us having this conversation to bring this to us when we had already had this a couple months ago in our meeting when we decided what the structure will look like,” Jordan said. “Prior to that, we approved the chief staff attorney as well.”

Jordan said that the school board just approved the interim chief attorney and school board attorney and now were being asked to change the structure.

“I don’t recall having a meeting where this was ever brought up,” Jordan said. Jordan said her expectation of the special meeting was to discuss the replacement of the outgoing attorney.

Carlin said she discussed the presentation on the legal structure with Persons before the meeting.

Persons said he advised that the “more information the better.”

Board member Vanessa Chaviano saw the issue as separating the responsibilities of the school board’s attorney.

“I have frustration because there are issues and situations, and I am not going to name the specifics, where there were legal agreements made by our attorney trying to support the board and the superintendent. You can’t serve two masters,” Chaviano said. “There are agreements that were made that did not behoove us as a board that put us in situations that we are in today. With this structure, I understand now where we look at who do you answer to? We need someone that has our back 100%. This one example that is coming to my mind, we are still addressing these issues from two, three years ago, from an agreement that was made, that there wasn’t an out clause. There are different things that come up legally that are just standard practice as an attorney. I am not going to try and speak as an attorney because I am not.”

Though Chaviano did not name the issue she was referring to, the timeline and references sounded similar in nature to the interlocal agreement at the heart of the conflict resolution process between the School District of Lee County and the Town of Fort Myers Beach over the shuttered Fort Myers Beach Elementary School.

“In this one example that comes to mind that we are still dealing with, that is an instance where I would have loved to have had our back 100%,” Chaviano said.

Persons questioned how anything would have been different under the proposed new structure.

“Where on the new structure where she have been involved in that agreement? See what I mean? She has to negotiate with the people,” Persons said. Persons said his concern was that under the re-alignment there may not be enough attorneys to do the job, which includes reviewing all contracts, real estate and litigation matters. “Even if it is farmed out, she is responsible for overseeing it and coordinating it,” Persons said. “We are a large district.”

Persons said he wanted to see an assistant attorney added to the school board attorney and more support staff though he did not get more support from the board. “It worries me that in a school district our size, we have one person,” Persons said. Persons said he was concerned about the school board being sued, having mentioned the number of lawsuits that are ongoing against the school district.

Superintendent Dr. Denise Carlin said the proposed structure is to align job duties with a title.

“I want to be very clear because I have heard this criticism this is a power play on behalf of the elected superintendent,” Carlin said. “I want to be abundantly clear with my conversation there. I have shared with this board, I did not run for this position about power. It had nothing to do with it. This position to me is about getting systems in place that makes sense. When I see assistant attorneys spending 99% of their time working with staff on staff-related issues, it does not make sense to me for their title to be assistant board attorney,” she said.

“I totally agree Mr. Persons, this is a very large district,” Carlin said. “The board is the one that gets sued, no question about it except when I am sued personally. We have had three lawsuits on that personally and as superintendent. So those would be the three cases where I have been sued both in my capacity and as an individual.”

Carlin said she wasn’t seeking to usurp the power of the school board.

“I have the upmost respect and confidence in this staff that they will continue to operate in the way that they have operated,” Carlin said. “The question is are we aligning job descriptions and titles with what people actually do.”

The school district will follow a 64-day plan where they will advertise the job for school board attorney on national and state platforms. Candidate screening will happen throughout the month of February, a special meeting to hold panel interviews for the finalist will follow.

Meghan Bradbury contributed reporting to this story.