PORTLAND, Ore. – Oregon Secretary of State Dennis Richardson announced Monday he will audit the state’s largest school district, in part because district officials are suing a parent to keep records secret.

Richardson told The Oregonian that he’s received a flood of complaints from Portland residents about a long history of dysfunction and recent scandals, including the school board’s decision to sue those seeking public records.

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“We’re going to give the district an opportunity to show that the criticism is unfair,” he said.

Portland Public Schools sued Portland Tribune reporter Beth Slovic this spring to block the release of records deemed public documents by Multnomah County District Attorney Rod Underhill.

Slovac sought public records last fall pertaining to PPS employees on paid administrative leave, a request that was rejected by the district’s interim general counsel, Stephanie Harper.

Harper told the Tribune that “when this information is released prematurely … it jeopardizes employees’ rights to due process,” and alleged the lawsuit is designed as “an opportunity to get clarity around this issue.”

The PPS lawsuit also aims to block the same list of suspended employees from parent Kim Sordyl, who also requested the information and helped campaign to elect new school board members during the last election.

According to The Oregonian:

Known for withering criticism of the district, Sordyl is a polarizing figure in the parent community, where she draws supporters and haters alike. Fear of her has become a force within the district. Attempts to quell her social media critiques haven’t worked.

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“I’ve been seeking audits of Portland Public Schools spending for a long time so I’m really happy to see he’s going to take this on,” Sordyl said of Richardson’s decision.

PPS officials were unavailable for comment, but the news site points out several indications that three new board members may be steering the district towards transparency.

Board members delayed a decision last week to award a $4 million contract to the law firm Miller Nash Graham & Dunn, it’s “go-to defender,” The Oregonian reports.

Board member Mike Rosen, who Sordyl campaigned to help elect, is pushing the board to re-evaluate the district’s legal counsel.

The Cardinal Times – the student newspaper for PPS’ Lincoln High School – joined with other news sites to demand that the school board drop the lawsuit.

“The district cites privacy concerns for teachers,” an April Times editorial read. “But it seems to ignore the fact that the decision to keep the information secret – despite Underhill’s ruling – may make it appear to voters that PPS is headed down the same dark path that caused the lead crisis and fall of a superintendent.”

District officials are also facing a legal conundrum. A week after the district sued Slovic and Sordyl to shield the list of employees on paid leave, former Grant High School teacher Brian Samore sued the district claiming he was defamed when the district announced the decision to put him on paid leave.

Samore’s lawsuit means PPS must “argue in one lawsuit that putting an employee on paid administrative leave is a secret personnel action that could cause the public to draw false conclusions, but in another, defend its decision to tell parents and students that Grant High’s athletic director was put on paid leave,” according to The Oregonian.