In the regular course of conducting the business of the district, it is necessary to contract for legal services.

These services are contracted in specialized areas to ensure support, compliance, to protect the interests and to ensure the legal and best operation of the district in many areas, including:

• Bonds & Millages
• Property transactions
• Personnel matters, including investigations and tenure hearings
• Litigation issues
• Office of Civil Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission complaints and issues
• Special Education matters.

It has been our practice to update the Board and the community on the costs associated with legal representation for the District.

You will note that legal costs to the district have been reduced since implementing an internal General Counsel organizational model, adjustment made approximately 12 years ago (numbers on this chart are actual dollars, not adjusted for inflation). There are significant and meaningful additional benefits with the internal General Counsel model, which most large districts use, yet the intention of this information is to provide the actual costs of legal counsel.

The FY20 amount is a year-to-date total accurate to this current date.