Nicole Solas v. South Kingstown School Committee

Supreme Court of Rhode Island·Decided May 29, 2026·No. 2025-0006-Appeal.·Published

Opinion

Supreme Court

No. 2025-6-Appeal.

(PC 22-4727)

Nicole Solas :

v. :

South Kingstown School Committee. :

NOTICE: This opinion is subject to formal revision before publication in the Rhode Island Reporter. Readers are requested to notify the Opinion Analyst, Supreme Court of Rhode Island, 250 Benefit Street, Providence, Rhode Island 02903, at Telephone (401) 222-3258 or Email opinionanalyst@courts.ri.gov, of any typographical or other formal errors in order that corrections may be made before the opinion is published.

Supreme Court

No. 2025-6-Appeal.

(PC 22-4727)

Nicole Solas :

v. :

South Kingstown School Committee. :

Present: Suttell, C.J., Goldberg, Robinson, Lynch Prata, and Long, JJ.

OPINION

Justice Lynch Prata, for the Court. The plaintiff, Nicole Solas, appeals from a Superior Court entry of judgment in favor of the defendant, the South Kingstown School Committee. This case comes before the Court pursuant to an order directing the parties to appear and show cause why the issues raised in this appeal should not be summarily decided. After considering the parties’ written and oral submissions and reviewing the record, we conclude that cause has not been shown and that this case may be decided without further briefing or argument. The issue presented on appeal is whether the Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) Advisory Board is a “public body” subject to the Open Meetings Act (OMA), G.L. 1956 § 42-46-3. For the reasons set forth in this opinion, we affirm the judgment of the Superior Court.

Facts and Travel

On June 23, 2020, Robin Wildman, executive director of Nonviolent Schools Rhode Island (NSRI), gave a presentation to the South Kingstown School Committee (the school committee) on the mission of NSRI and how the organization could help improve the “climate and culture” of the South Kingstown school district. On July 22, 2020, the school committee unanimously voted to create the “equity and anti racist advisory board” which later became known as the BIPOC Advisory Board (the Board) facilitated by Wildman and Jonathan Lewis, a training director at NSRI. The school committee authorized Wildman and Lewis to facilitate Board meetings in response to numerous community members expressing their concerns about the lack of diversity in district staff members and racial inequity in the district’s student disciplinary policies. Community members also shared that students were experiencing acts of racism to such a degree that the school district should implement anti-racist professional development training and provide conflict-resolution training to promote a more equitable school district.

On October 27, 2020, the school committee unanimously voted to continue the Board and executed an agreement with NSRI to facilitate twenty-five meetings

from February through August 2021. Thereafter, the school committee allotted $5,000 of its funds to the Board to facilitate these meetings. 1 In May 2021, plaintiff learned of the Board’s existence and asked the superintendent of the school district, Linda Savastano, for permission to attend its meetings. Savastano directed plaintiff to Wildman, who informed plaintiff that the school district hired the NSRI as a private vendor and that at that time, the Board’s meetings were not open the public.2 Subsequently, plaintiff filed an administrative complaint with the Rhode Island Office of the Attorney General under § 42-46-8(a) against the BIPOC Board, alleging that the Board was a public body that did not hold open meetings, in violation of the OMA. 3 The school committee filed a response denying plaintiff’s

1 The record reveals that NSRI was paid $7,474 for the July 1, 2020, through June 30, 2021, fiscal year. This amount included $5,000 for the facilitation of twenty-five Board meetings and other services performed by NSRI unrelated to facilitation of the Board. 2 Wildman testified at her deposition that, in the preliminary stage of the Board’s formation, participation on the Board was open only to members of the community who identified as BIPOC. This effort was intended to facilitate a safe space for members to share personal stories about how the school district’s policies affected them. Wildman also testified that after the preliminary stage, membership on the Board would be open to the larger community. Wildman testified, however, that she rejected Solas’s requests to attend the meetings because of Solas’s persistent emails and social media remarks to Wildman demanding that the meetings be open to the public and requesting names of individual Board members. 3 General Laws 1956 § 42-46-8 provides a remedial cause of action for citizens or entities of the state who are aggrieved as a result of a public body operating in violation of the OMA.

allegations. The school committee declared that the Board’s mission was “to advocate for equity in the education of students who identify as [BIPOC] in South Kingstown schools, inspiring a healthier and just community and school system for everyone.” Additionally, the Board was to “review[] current [s]chool [c]ommittee policies through the lens of inclusivity and equity. If the Board finds facts to lead it to believe that the policy being reviewed does not meet these goals, they bring those concerns to the School Committee Policy Sub-Committee.” The School Committee Policy Sub-Committee (the policy sub-committee) would then meet to discuss and vote on the Board’s policy proposals and submit said proposals to the school committee for further review.

On May 10, 2022, the Attorney General notified plaintiff that the Board was not a public body under the OMA. Consequently, plaintiff filed a complaint in Superior Court pursuant to the OMA against the school committee. Thereafter, plaintiff filed an amended complaint and moved for summary judgment, arguing that the plain language of the OMA and this Court’s holding in Solas v. Emergency Hiring Council of the State, 774 A.2d 820 (R.I. 2001), required that the Board be subject to the OMA because, according to plaintiff, the Board possessed advisory power over matters of significant public interest. The plaintiff sought declaratory relief that any actions taken by the Board be deemed null and void. The school committee responded with a cross-motion for summary judgment, arguing that the

Board was not a public body under the OMA, citing to this Court’s holding in Pontarelli v. Rhode Island Board Council on Elementary and Secondary Education, 151 A.3d 301 (R.I. 2016).

The hearing justice concluded that the school committee “did not evade its own bylaws or state laws,” because the Board “[did] not possess any voting or veto power to override the [s]chool [c]ommittee’s or the [p]olicy [s]ubcommittee’s decision[s] * * *.” The hearing justice reasoned that there was a structured process where the Board provided suggestions to the policy sub-committee for its review, which was then subject to further review by the school committee. The hearing justice determined that this framework “provide[d] the public two opportunities to stay informed and voice concerns about the Board’s policy proposals * * *.” Furthermore, the hearing justice found that, because there was a review process where recommendations or suggestions made by the Board to the policy sub-committee were not “blanketly adopted” by the school committee, “the Board [wa]s analogous to the [Compensation Review Committee] in Pontarelli.” See Pontarelli, 151 A.3d at 308. Accordingly, the hearing justice denied plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment, and granted defendant’s cross-motion. Final judgment in favor of defendant entered on October 23, 2024. The plaintiff filed a timely notice of appeal.

Standard of Review

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