Lawrence Public Schools Superintendent Kyle Hayden, left, and Board President Marcel Harmon, middle, listen during the school board's regular meeting Monday, Dec. 12, 2016, as a group of parents and residents demand answers about the district's investigation and settlement with South Middle School social studies teacher Chris Cobb, who had been accused of making racist remarks in class.

Two Lawrence school board members on Tuesday renewed their calls for the board to hire outside legal counsel to reassess a controversial investigation into allegations that a South Middle School teacher made racist remarks during class earlier this fall.

The idea was first proposed at Monday’s school board meeting, which was swiftly adjourned after a crowd of community members — some affiliated with a group calling itself Black Lives Matter LFK — accused the district of protecting that teacher and mishandling the investigation into his alleged misconduct. The board suddenly adjourned the meeting after profanity-laden disruptions from the audience made it difficult for the board to conduct the meeting.

Vanessa Sanburn — who, along with Jill Fincher and Jessica Beeson, was 1 of 3 board members to remain in the meeting room Monday night to address constituent complaints — said her desire to bring aboard new legal counsel stemmed from questions about whether the district’s administration had shared all pertinent details of the investigation with the board. Sanburn said she heard allegations from meeting attendees on Monday that she said had not been shared with her during the investigation.

“I’ve heard statements from members of the community and from people who alleged that their children experienced certain things that are news to me,” Sanburn said Tuesday, referring to some assertions on Monday that children had allegedly been exposed to racist ideology at South. “And I wanted to be committed that everything, that all the allegations we have heard as a district, have been fully investigated.

“And I want to ensure that I fully understand the laws around transparency and what we are required to keep confidential and what we are allowed to keep public,” Sanburn continued. Throughout the investigation and its aftermath, several parents and community members, including leaders of the Lawrence NAACP chapter, have continued to criticize the school district over what has been perceived as a lack of transparency in the proceedings.

Virtually no details of that investigation — including what is alleged to have been said by the teacher — have been revealed by the district since announcing the investigation in October. District officials have also declined to divulge the findings of that investigation. The accused teacher, Chris Cobb, last week released a statement denying any wrongdoing. In the statement Cobb also said he was unjustly accused by a source having a “well documented history of falsehoods.” He said he “reluctantly resigned” his position of 17 years with the district.

And yet several community members and a handful of parents continued to allege at Monday’s meeting that Cobb had made racist comments in class, and that the district had offered more protection to him as a teacher than the students and families involved.

The Journal-World last week reported that Cobb, who taught sixth-grade social studies at South, entered into a settlement agreement that involved the district agreeing to withhold information regarding the investigation in exchange for a promise that the district would not be sued over the matter.

Another allegation to arise from Monday’s unofficial meeting was the claim by one South mother that many parents were not notified of their children’s involvement in the investigation. It was also alleged that David Cunningham, the district’s executive director of human resources and legal counsel, interviewed students who had been pulled out of class to answer questions about the alleged incidents, and that students were allegedly questioned about their parents’ involvement in local social-justice organizations such as Sisters With a Purpose.

Beeson, who heard these allegations from patrons Monday night, told the Journal-World that the information, which she said contradicted what she had been told by district officials, had left her with more questions than answers.

“I was under the impression that the principal was handling the interviews with the students, which is in line with our practices as a district,” Beeson said.

“I also was not aware that there were students who got pulled out four or five times,” she continued, later adding, “The notion that kids may have been questioned about what organizations their parents were involved with is troubling.”

Superintendent Kyle Hayden on Tuesday denied allegations that “the district’s legal counsel” had interviewed students during the investigation.

School board president Marcel Harmon temporarily returned to the meeting room Monday night after officially adjourning the meeting, but later stepped out, he said, in order to avoid violating the Kansas Open Meetings Act. At that point, with only three board members remaining in the room, Harmon said, discussion with patrons could continue in accordance with open-meetings laws.

When asked, given the allegations to emerge from Monday’s meeting, if he had changed his stance on the appropriateness of the settlement agreement between Cobb and the district, Harmon remained steadfast.

“Based on the information provided to the board at the time, we made what we thought was the best decision,” Harmon wrote in an email. “At this time my opinion hasn’t changed.”

Sanburn noted that she had reached out to an attorney with the Kansas Association of School Boards on Tuesday, and that she had asked Harmon to arrange a meeting with new legal counsel “to talk about our options” as far as reassessing the handling of the South investigation.

“I don’t know,” Sanburn said when asked about the appropriateness of the district’s settlement agreement with Cobb in the aftermath of Monday’s school board meeting. “And that’s why I would have to have an investigation.”

“There are a lot of unknowns right now,” she continued, echoing sentiments expressed by Beeson to the Journal-World on Tuesday. “We are working right now to get legal counsel to help us answer those questions.”

Harmon, however, said in an email with the Journal-World that he doesn’t necessarily agree with the idea of hiring outside counsel. As of now, he wrote, there is “a lack of clear evidence that supports” reassessing the handling of the South investigation. “But,” he continued, “board members whom I respect a great deal have some questions, and a segment of the community represented by protesters (Monday) night also have some questions.”

“So I’m willing to discuss this as a board. But I will state that I personally support the administration and our superintendent — that has not changed for me,” Harmon said.

Beeson also said Tuesday that she had called for an executive session that would ideally land “on the calendar this week.” She did not confirm whether or not board members would discuss some audience members’ demands to remove Hayden from his post as superintendent, but did say that discussion would likely involve “some of the information that was shared with us (Monday night) in particular.”