Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

A special-called meeting of the Clark County Public Schools Board of Education previously slated for Thursday has been rescheduled for Friday at noon, and one board member has confirmed he will not be there.

According to the agenda, the Board is set to consider two pieces of business: an approval to discontinue legal services with the Winchester law firm Grant, Rose & Pumphrey and provide written notice of termination, and an approval to execute a contract for legal services with Mount Sterling law firm White, Peck, and Carrington.

Board Co-Chair Bill Taulbee confirmed in a text message conversation with a Sun reporter that he will not attend the meeting because of “work commitments.”

He said he reached out to Superintendent Molly McComas and other board members to schedule the meeting for another time but did not receive a response.

“I asked the superintendent and the Board members to move it to Monday night at 6:30 p.m., our normal meeting time. I received no response from anyone. They all know I can’t make it. They don’t want me there,” Taulbee said.

Taulbee has been outspoken in his opposition to the push by other Board members to hire new legal services. At Monday’s Board meeting, he introduced a motion, which ultimately failed, to table the scheduled interviews and vote because he had concerns about the bidding process. In an interview with WLEX-TV earlier this month, Taulbee said he believed that the search for new legal counsel was rooted in retaliation.

In February, Brian Thomas, who represents the Board on behalf of Grant, Rose & Pumphrey, forwarded allegations to the Attorney General’s Office that led to the ongoing ethics investigation into Board member Sherry Richardson.

The meeting was initially scheduled for 8:30 a.m. Thursday with no time marked off for public comment. Since then, the agenda has been updated to include time for comments by the public.

Superintendent McComas declined to comment on Taulbee’s remarks.