By Shelby Stewart-Soldan
Staff Writer
Oxford Twp. – At the regular meeting on Sept. 12, the Oxford Board of Education voted 5-0 to accept and sign the letter of understanding as presented by Varnum LLP and Guidepost Solutions LLC pertaining to the Guidepost investigation into the Oxford school shooting of Nov. 30, 2021.
Secretary James Sommers and trustee Amanda McDonough were both absent with notice.
The letter of understanding was reviewed at the Aug. 29 meeting, and the board had requested that the assurances contained in the letter be listed numerically under the paragraph regarding addendum and postponed a vote until the Sept. 12 meeting.
“In addition, there was an additional legal opinion collected, so everything that was discussed at the last meeting and asked by the board members to look into, we did, and this letter is what has come out of it,” said board president Heather Shafer
The attorney group Varnum and Guidepost were hired in May 2022 to conduct the investigation into the shooting, where four students, Madisyn Baldwin, Tate Myre, Justin Shilling and Hana St. Julianna, were killed and seven other people were injured.
There was an earlier report produced from the investigation on what the district would do after the shooting in regards to safety and security, as well as threat and suicide assessment. The final report will detail what happened leading up to Nov. 30, the day of, and what happened after the shooting.
The addendum outlines the expectations of both Guidepost and Varnum in the issuance of the final report, including seven bullet points now added to the letter.
“All of which were somewhere in the addendum letter in the previous draft, but have now been moved into bullet points at the request of the board,” said Ronald DeWaard of Varnum LLP. “I think the letter speaks for itself, as it indicates, the report is on course to be released on or before Oct. 30 of this year. The final report, there’s a single, final report, that Guidepost has a final say on, the report is being put together by a team, but it will be a single report released at the same time to the public as to the board.”
The points of understanding in the letter outline when Varnum was engaged to conduct the investigation and what their investigation would focus on:
• That Varnum engaged Guidepost to perform consulting and investigation services for the investigation,
• That a single report will be issued addressing the total investigation,
• Said report will be issued on or before Oct. 30, 2023 and will be provided to the board of education and the public at the same time,
• That the engagement agreement will continue following the issuance of the report only as far as the board requests additional services,
• That the final contents of the report will solely be controlled by Guidepost without the influence of the board, the district, or Varnum,
• And that documents and materials collected in connection with the investigation will be maintained for a period of one year, then will be destroyed.
• There will be other materials destroyed in the investigation following Guidepost’s record management policy.
It was not said if Varnum will receive a copy of the report at the same time as the board or not.
“I checked my notes from the last meeting and this appears to address everything that I noted,” said Superintendent Vickie Markavitch.
The full addendum to the Guidepost engagement letter is available to read in the meeting packet for the Sept. 12 meeting at oxfordschools.org/district/board_of_education.