Members of the Limestone County school board weighed in on travel expenses at Tuesday’s work session, though many of those involved in the conversation were quick to agree it was “a discussion for another time.”

Despite this agreement, Limestone County Board of Education Chairman Bret McGill, board member Earl Glaze and Superintendent Tom Sisk each made a brief argument. Glaze said he was still convinced too much travel was being spent out of the central office to schools in the district.

Sisk defended travel to annual conferences in Mobile and Gulf Shores, saying the district needed to attend to ensure they didn’t miss programs being announced at the conference. A conference in 2014 was used as an example.

“We lost a quarter of a million dollars in chargebacks because we didn’t follow a policy change that the state rolled out,” Sisk told the board. “They did not give us a specific email. They roll it out at the state conference, and there was nobody there (from Limestone County Schools) to hear it.”

Board member Brandon Young said the lack of people at the 2014 conference had nothing to do with transportation costs, and the example was therefore irrelevant to the current discussion. Sisk told him it was one example and there were others, though he did not provide them at the time.

Sisk told the News Courier on Thursday he believed the conference example he used was the annual MEGA Conference held each summer by the Alabama State Department of Education. He said the conference includes hundreds of workshops and seminars, and is generally used by the state to roll out new programs or directives.

“We missed something we were required to do because we didn’t do it, because we didn’t know to do it,” he said.

At the work session, McGill agreed employees should attend conferences and bring back pertinent information, but said “the culture of the way we travel” needed to be changed. He said employees should be required to ride or room together.

“That’s what we’re doing wrong. We’re sending 12 people to the beach and 12 people come back with mileage,” he said. “… I don’t like riding with someone else, and I don’t like rooming with someone else. … But if my job requires me to do it, I’ll do it.”

Sisk told The News Courier the district usually sends a dozen to 15 principals and administrators to MEGA. He said the district also sends employees to other conferences.

However, he said, the funding comes from Title II funds provided through the Higher Education Act — not local funds.

Seven months ago, The News Courier submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to receive copies of travel records and costs from the superintendent’s office. The request was sent to Sisk’s office and the school board’s attorney in Huntsville.

The requests were sent via registered mail. The newspaper received a notice that the requests were delivered to the attorney’s office and to the central office on June 20, 2018. As of Thursday, those travel records, which are public records under Alabama law, have not been provided to The News Courier.

The state’s Alabama Open Records Law compels governmental entities to make records public upon request within a “reasonable” time period, but does not specify a deadline.