The St Joseph Board of Education voted Sunday to retain a law firm to represent the board in matters regarding the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Attorney Steve Briggs, who represents the school district on more routine matters, says the the firm of Wyrsch Hobbs & Mirakian will be retained to represent the board “as a unit,” and not necessarily the individual members of the board. The firm will not represent the defendants in the lawsuit filed by former Chief Financial Officer Beau Musser.

A hearing is scheduled next week at which a new law firm will be named to represent the St Joseph School Dstrict in the lawsuit filed by the former CFO.

On Sunday, the school board called a special meeting. They went into a closed-door session, where Briggs says they discussed the hiring of the lawfirm, which is based in Kansas City. They returned to public session and voted unanimously to retain Wyrsch Hobbs & Mirakian.

The FBI and a U.S. Grand Jury are investigating the district. In May the grand jury issued subpoenas for a large amount of district documents, including meeting records, meeting notices, policies, personnel records and other documents. No one has been charged with a crime in that investigation.

Mr Musser sued the school district for wrongful termination and defamation of character. In court documents, Musser asserted that he was let go for insisting that the district let the public know about a series of stipends given to top administrators without school board approval. The stipends in question totaled more than a quarter million dollars, but sources say many more stipends were given out, either without approval by the board, or with approval after they were paid.

Mr Briggs says the district’s liability insurance carrier will appoint a lawyer to represent the district, Superintendent Dr. Fred Czerwonka, Human Resources Director Doug Flowers and School Board Member Dennis Snethen in the lawsuit. That becamse necessary when the original law firm, Mickes Goldman O’Toole, requested to withdraw from the case. A court hearing was scheduled Monday on the motion to withdraw, but it was continued until August 21. Lawyer Betsey Helfrich of the Mickes firm requested the continuance, and said they needed one week for the new legal counsel to take on the case.