Hiccup or major blunder?

The La Marque school board, after getting a $31,000 bill from its attorneys for about a month’s work, had a disagreement over how big a deal that was. Was it a little hiccup or a major blunder?

First, the problems that prompted this flurry of legal work were largely self-inflicted.

Trustees should have known the law before they conducted a meeting that The Daily News, among others, contended was a violation of the Texas Open Meetings Act.

The majority of the board ignored that warning and went on with plans to suspend the superintendent and the district’s police chief.

Then, when attorneys got involved — including the school board’s own attorney — the board reversed course.

Now, according to the legal bills, a grand jury is involved, which suggests at least some members of the school board are going to need more legal help and the meter will continue to run.

Incidentally, the annual bill for legal services was a bit more than $119,000.

Which gets to the second point: The school district just can’t afford this.

Information item 9 on the school board’s agenda was a proposal to offer 25 people with contracts 5 percent of their base salary as an incentive to get them to leave.

The school district already has cut staff. It’s going to have to cut more employees to balance its budget. This move is an effort to save up to $325,000.

At a time when the district is cutting staff and looking for more cuts just to balance its books, it desperately needs school board members who can conduct a basic business meeting without incidents that result in big legal bills.