A small southwestern Alabama school system continued with its political split on Tuesday by voting along the same 4-3 split for its new board president and vice-president as it did last month on a decision not to renew the superintendent’s contract.

Otherwise, for the Escambia County School Board, the meeting was somewhat business-as-usual despite a looming criminal case against one of its own that has thrust the unassuming rural county known more for its tribal casino and being home to the state’s Death Row inmates, into a national debate over press freedoms.

It was the first time the school board had met since Oct. 12. That meeting last month was a contentious one leading to a 4-3 vote to not renew Superintendent Michele McClung’s contract, set to expire in June.

The only remarks on Tuesday that were made after the 4-3 votes on the new one-year terms for board president and vice-president came from outgoing board president Danny Benjamin.

He praised McClung.

“I’m thankful to have worked with nine superintendents,” said Benjamin, who has been affiliated with the school system for 35 years. “Ms. McClung has really, really stepped up to the plate and has done an amazing job for this school system.”

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It was the fallout of the 4-3 vote to not renew McClung’s contract that has created a stir in Atmore and beyond. A few weeks later, a series of criminal indictments were filed against 72-year-old Sherry Digmon related to her dual roles as a school board member and as publisher of The Atmore News.

Digmon faces a rare impeachment charge, two counts of ethics violation, and a charge of revealing grand jury secrets stemming from a story that ran in The Atmore News about the school system’s handling of COVID-19 funds.

No local school board member has been impeached in Alabama in 17 years.

Digmon, who attended the entire meeting and voted in support of a variety of school projects that were on the agenda, declined to comment about the criminal case.

Also attending the meeting was 69-year-old Don Fletcher, The Atmore News reporter who faces a charge of revealing grand jury secrets allegedly because he wrote the story about the pandemic relief funds. Fletcher was in attendance to cover the meeting for his newspaper, but declined to comment about his case noting that a condition of his bail terms is that he does not discuss it publicly.

Fletcher and Digmon are scheduled to go before a judge at 9 a.m. on Monday for a preliminary hearing at the Escambia County Courthouse in Brewton.

Also charged with revealing grand jury evidence is Ashley Fore, 47, a bookkeeper at the school system. She was not in attendance.

Escambia County District Attorney Steve Billy, who vocally supported McClung during the Oct. 12 meeting, was also in attendance at this week’s board meeting but did not make any public statements. He, too, declined to comment to AL.com about the cases.

In fact, no one even signed up to speak during the meeting despite a large crowd inside the board’s meeting room. The meeting was monitored by three uniformed law enforcement officers.

McClung, whose parents attended what she said was “their first ever meeting” in person, said afterward that she was not going to comment about someone else’s case.

The charges and fallout from last month’s superintendent vote have captured the national media’s attention, with The New York Times and Washington Post writing articles about the journalists charged for printing a story.

No national news outlets were in attendance at this week’s board meeting.

Board politics

Press freedom groups have also weighed in, questioning the arrests of Digmon and Fletcher as a possible afront to their First Amendment rights.

American courts have long upheld the right to publish leaks if the information is obtained legally. Scholars have repeatedly pointed to high-profile cases such as the Supreme Court’s 1971 decision that allowed national newspapers to publish the “Pentagon Papers,” which exposed classified Defense Department’s documentation on the history of U.S. military action in Vietnam.

None of those issues were even brought up during or after the meeting.

Only local board matters were of concern.

Digmon sided with the majority in voting in support of Loumeek White as the new board president. The same 4-3 vote, with Digmon siding with the majority, backed Cindy Jackson as the board vice-president. The majority was represented by Digmon, White, Jackson and Kevin Hoomes.

Benjamin, the outgoing board president, voted with the minority on a 3-4 vote in support of Mike Edwards as board president, and Coleman Wallace for vice-president.

Benjamin handed over the board responsibilities to White toward the end of the meeting and before the board went into an executive session that lasted more than a half hour. The closed-door meeting was over a legal matter, but no decisions were made afterward.

“I’d like to note what we do is for the benefit of our children,” said Benjamin. “You are here today because you are concerned for our children. Our children are our leaders of tomorrow.”

Accusations

The impeachment indictment against Digmon accuses her of not focusing on the “well-being of the school system as a whole, nor the students, and only on her opportunity to benefit financially from the Escambia County Board of Education.”

The impeachment indictment was filed on Oct. 27, and was provided to AL.com by Digmon’s attorney, Ernest White of Brewton, and the Alabama Association of School Boards.

The indictment accuses Digmon of violating the 11-year-old School Board Governance Improvement Act of 2012 that establishes training requirements, and accountability measures for all local school board members.

The indictment also accuses Digmon of failing to participate in school activities and functions in her role as a school board member, that she worked as a reporter to “promote her newspaper business, The Atmore News,” and for attending school conferences … spending several thousand dollars yearly.

Digmon faces two counts of ethics violation for allegedly using her school board position for “personal gain by selling ads” in the Atmore Magazine and/or Grace Publishing LLC, which she also has financial interest in, and for receiving more than $2,500.

Billy has also accused Digmon of ignoring McClung’s record as a superintendent in Escambia County, saying she took leadership over a “failing school system” and had initiated about a dozen improvements that warranted a contract renewal, according to the impeachment indictment.

An attorney with the school system denied on Monday AL.com’s request to review past job performance reviews of the current and past superintendents.

Sally Smith, executive director with the AASB, has raised concerns over Billy’s interpretation of the 2012 law. Digmon’s attorney — Ernest White – has since called the charges politically motivated and a fallout over her vote to not renew McClung’s contract.

Billy has been District Attorney in Escambia County since 2004, first elected as a Democrat. He was re-elected in 2010 and 2016 without opposition before switching to the Republican Party and running against for re-election in 2022. Digmon ran for the school board in 2022 as a Republican.