SBCSC hires attorney and outside investigators

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- The South Bend Community School Corp. (SBCSC) board held a special public meeting Thursday evening to appoint outside investigators and an attorney to serve as counsel to the board.

The board voted 4-3 to approve attorney Peter Agostino as their new counsel. Agostino will work directly with the board, not for the entire district.

They also approved outside investigators Tim Corbett and Joe Speybroeck with a 5-2 vote. They will look into any accusations of ethical, legal, or financial misconduct from the SBCSC administrators or board members over the past five years.

Before anyone was approved for a position, the board heard from several candidates. The board spent time questioning each before ultimately putting it up for a vote.

During Agostino’s questioning, some of the board and members of the public brought up concerns about his past work with Save Clay Inc. and Save Our Schools, but Agostino assured his history will not conflict with the role of attorney.

“You know facing issues such as a declining enrollment, the needs of facilities, the needs of the students and so, this is not a job that’s going to be easy for anyone, and for all the board members I know they have a tough job and I hope that everyone can work together to do the best that we can to improve the schools, bring people back to the schools,” said Agostino.

Tim Corbett came prepared to the meeting, bringing a binder full of over 300 pages of issues towards SBCSC that the community already brought to him.

“There’s nobody in this area that has the investigatory skills that I do. And I’m bringing that and presenting that, I don’t see anybody else sitting here with over 300 pages of issues,” said Corbett.

Speybroeck explained once their investigation is complete, it will be the board’s responsibility to release it to the public.

“Anything that we get from the general public we’ll keep confidential, and we turn that into Pete and then he gives that to the board and that’s where, we don’t send it out to anybody else,” said Speybroeck.

If you would like to watch the meeting, click here.