INDIANAPOLIS (AP) _ The State Board of Education has agreed to pay $15,000 as part of a legal settlement in a case alleging a violation of Indiana's open meetings laws.
Democratic lawyer Bill Groth announced Wednesday that the board members also agreed to avoid any future violations of the state's public access rules.
The settlement ends close to a year of legal battling between board members and Schools Superintendent Glenda Ritz and her supporters. Ritz, who chairs the board, sued the other members last year after they sought to speed up calculation of the state's “A-F'' school grades.
The attorney general's office successfully argued that Ritz did not have standing to bring the suit. But other Democrats picked up the argument and filed the lawsuit that was settled Wednesday.
