Rift between parents and administration at Lee-Scott Academy spills into public view

Signs of discontent among the families of students at Lee-Scott Academy in Auburn have emerged in the wake of a recent meeting of the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors which took place on March 20th of 2025. Attorney Ryan P. Robichaux of the Bradley law firm made remarks to the LSA Executive Committee on behalf of the student families that he represents which laid bare the long simmering tensions at the private school that are threatening to boil over and expose a laundry list of grievances against an increasingly authoritarian school administration that has run afoul of its founding mission.

Below are excerpts from Robichaux's remarks;

We are here on one primary issue: parental voting rights as members of the foundation (hereinafter "voting rights"). We believe that they were wrongfully removed in 2012, and we are here to ask you to correct that wrong and restore them. We believe that restoring voting rights would be in the best interest of the school, and that is the message we intend to convey this evening.

Legally, our position is clear, parental voting rights was a cornerstone issue for the school since its founding. Parents enjoyed this right until 2012, when the voting rights were unlawfully removed. The school's governing documents at that time speak for themselves, and they were clear that the voting rights could not be removed without (1) proper notice to the parents, and (2) a vote by the parents to remove them. There is no evidence that either occurred. In fact, the amendment that removed parental voting rights clearly states that a board vote occurred instead of a vote of the parents, and there are members of the 2012 board who can testify to this.

When Lee County Educational Foundation was created, the founders believed that it was important for parents to have meaningful oversight over the governance of the school. It was a foundational policy for the school, and it was expressly stated in their formation documents. It is my understanding that the same or similar is true for East Alabama Educational Foundation (or Scott Preparatory School). The parents of each institution had clear, unambiguous voting rights for decades before the two schools merged into what is now Lee Scott Academy, and voting rights was a major component of that merger. A majority of parents of each organization had to approve the merger, and the merger agreement itself reaffirmed the voting rights of parents and was upheld by the Supreme Court of Alabama.

The founders were wise and understood the benefits of providing parents with meaningful oversight. Specifically, parental voting rights provide the following benefits: limited authority, more accountability and representation, more engagement and unity, more transparency, and less risk.

Unfortunately, all of these benefits were lost when the voting rights were removed in 2012. Today, parents have no oversight, and no meaningful way to influence the Board or the Administration.

Since the removal of parental voting rights in 2012, there has been a growing fissure between the school and the parents. I am not here to air specific, individual grievances, nor will I. But you need to understand that there is a growing negative culture here. There is significant discontent among the parents. Many feel that they are not being heard, and they do not have a safe means to express their concerns.

Parents are afraid to express any type of constructive criticism for fear of reprisal. In particular, parents are afraid of the "School/Family Cooperation" language in the School Handbook. Parents would rather stay quiet than risk having their children removed from school and potentially forfeit tuition. Indeed, there are many parents who support the restoration of parental voting rights and support what we are trying to do that wanted to be here tonight, but they were too afraid at this point. When I read the language, I personally cannot blame them.

Whether you are hearing about it or not, parents are not happy with this policy, and they want to see some changes. In particular, they want to have meaningful oversight and meaningful engagement, and they support parental voting rights. But you don't have to take my word for it, you can ask them. If you can assure them that there will be no reprisal, they will likely tell you that.

In light of these remarks, it is worth noting that failures by the LSA administration over the past several years have precipitated the conditions that have pushed the perilous relations with the student families to the brink of legal action against the school. According to attorney Robichaux, when the school's board illegally voted to disenfranchise student families in 2012 by removing their voting rights they broke Alabama law by not putting that decision to a vote by the parents who were designated as members and the only ones vested with the authority to do so. Further violating state law at that time was the school board's failure to properly notify the parents of any such vote being scheduled to take place.

This disregard by the LSA board for the rights of parents has led to the creation of a self perpetuating authoritarian school regime that avoids accountability and transparency in their actions while they hand pick and vote in their replacements without any input from families.

Over time a toxic atmosphere of distrust has taken hold of LSA where parents who question school policy face arbitrary expulsion of their children with forfeiture of tuition paid and potentially being forced to pay future costs of enrollment under the terms of onerous contracts. Under this regime which the LSA board operates there is no transparency of admissions policy where many legacy families who were involved in the school's founding find their children are denied entry into the school. It comes as no surprise that academic performance at LSA has precipitously declined.

As LSA is consistently being outperformed by both private schools in the area as well as nearby public schools, the once idyllic institution which has lost its close knit family friendly atmosphere will continue to decline as an inevitable assortment of competitors seek to lure away its once loyal patronage who have been betrayed and shut out from the school they built for their own children.

Please email the Examiner at news@eaexaminer.com for any input you care to share as there may be follow up articles on this situation as it develops.

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