Orange Beach's recent school board meeting that featured Alabama Supreme Court case studies in a presentation about school system structure and governance came after the board's attorney said a new city councilman overstepped his jurisdiction.

At the July 9 work session, Nash Campbell, an education litigator who partners at Adams & Reese, gave a presentation about the governance of the school board and where city council's jurisdiction ends. Campbell said he was asked by the board to do research to help onboard new members Stephen Lewis and Clay Tindal, who were appointed within the last six months.

This included going through Alabama state laws and discussing his takeaways from four precedents set by Alabama Supreme Court rulings.

"One, you [the board] are your own local educational agency of the state; you're your own arm of the state. Two, municipalities [local government] cannot interfere with the business of you as a local agency of the state ...Three, the [city] council's role with your actual day-to-day business is extremely limited … And then four, any overreach in that relationship causes potential liability," he said.

City council's jurisdiction goes as far as appointing school board members, Campbell said. After that, a school board in the state of Alabama is autonomous.

Campbell summarized his four takeaways from the court cases discussed.

"City boards are state agencies, municipal interference is prohibited, [city] council statutory role is very, very limited, and overreach could create legal exposure because the court specifically stated if a council member reaches too far, it will threaten their immunity protections provided by the state constitution," he said in summarizing his analysis of rulings from City of Helena v. Pelham Board of Education (2024), Hutt v. Etowah County Board of Education, Day v. Andrews (1966) and Lisle Company Inc. v. Phenix City Board of Education.

To conclude his presentation to the board, he said "... Ultimately, I think that you can feel confident in doing what's best for students in Orange Beach and not what's best for anyone else."

Campbell told Gulf Coast Media after the meeting the board had requested the research to clear the air after City Councilman Robert Stuart, a former school board member, overreached in his new role.

"He [Stuart] sent some emails just demanding certain things from multiple people that work here – including the superintendent," Campbell said. "Long story short, it just turned into a blow up."

HOW WE GOT HERE

Stephen Lewis was appointed to Orange Beach's school board to replace the vacancy left by former board president Robert Stuart after he was elected to city council in August 2025; Clay Tindal was appointed to replace former board member Nelson Bauer after his term expired April 4.

As previously reported by GCM, at the June 16 Orange Beach City Council meeting, residents were vocal about their concern with council's potential overreach into school board matters and were upset at council's decision not to reappoint Bauer.

Bauer had served on the school board since the city district formed after breaking from Baldwin County Public Schools in 2022.

According to previous reporting by GCM, Stuart said Orange Beach City Schools Superintendent Randy Wilkes "failed to provide information about students' ACT scores when he and other council members asked for them for a month."

At the school board meeting last week, board President Randy McKinney asked Campbell to give an example of reaching too far.

"Emailing a board member or a superintendent and telling them to act a certain way, or involving employment, policy decisions, or so forth," Campbell said.

When he offered to "be more specific," McKinney said, "No, that's good. Employment, that's one that kinda comes up."

"It was Robert Stuart," Campbell told GCM after the July school board meeting when asked if someone specific was overreaching. "... He sent some emails directing employees here to do certain things that is too far, so they asked me to give some research to them."

WILKES STILL AT HELM

The July board meeting was the first one held since the district dispelled a social media rumor that the superintendent had been fired.

As previously reported by GCM, the rumor originated from a Facebook video, posted June 21 by attorney and social media influencer C.C. Dixon-Moreno, discussing an ongoing federal civil lawsuit — from a Florida family with two children enrolled as non-residents that are suing the district on claims initially stemming from a bullying incident where the family says their children were the victims — that names Wilkes; Dixon-Moreno said he was "now fired."

GCM reached out to both the district and Moreno after the video, which had  garnered over 180,000 views in 24 hours about a combined middle/high school with an enrollment of 339, was posted. A district spokeswoman confirmed Wilkes had not been fired. Moreno stood by her comment.

Wilkes told Gulf Coast Media after the July 9 school board meeting that Campbell's presentation had nothing to do with him, the video or the rumor.

"For the … people who live here, they see me in that capacity," Wilkes said. "They know that I was at the board meeting and ran the board meeting in June and, of course, did it again tonight and will do it again next month and the month after that and the month after that and the month after that."