ADAMS TWP — Citing ongoing litigation involving the state’s Right-to-Know Law, the Mars School Board on Tuesday voted unanimously not to continue membership in the Pennsylvania School Boards Association.

The board unanimously voted not to renew a contract with the organization for $13,795 for the 2018-19 school year.

According to Dayle Ferguson, school board president, the district had withdrawn from the PSBA many years ago over frustration with the state’s Keystone Exams. However, when officials were working on reviewing the district’s policy manual, the PSBA provided the most efficient way to undertake such a project.

That process has been completed, and Ferguson said recent disagreements with the PSBA have given board members cause for concern.

“We are at a point here now where we find ourselves often on different sides of policy positions ... and there’s just some frustration with a battle they’ve chosen to pick with a citizen,” she said.

That battle is with Simon Campbell, a Bucks County resident who runs Pennsylvanians for Union Reform. Campbell was sued by PSBA officials last year over what the association called a “relentless campaign of harassment, repeated defamations, tortious interference and abuse of process under the Pennsylvania Right to Know Law.”

PSBA in 2017 filed a civil complaint in Cumberland County Court against Campbell and his organization, claiming he was abusing the state’s Right-to-Know process, spreading defamatory statements on his website and had forced PSBA to process 600 requests for financial statements. The association, in court filings, seeks more than $50,000 in punitive damages, interest and legal costs from Campbell.

Campbell filed a countersuit in March in federal court. In court documents he asks a judge to “end retaliation and intimidation by government entities and representatives against a private citizen ...,” and seeking monetary and punitive damages.

Tom King, board solicitor, said more than 40 districts across the state — including Butler — have passed resolutions proposing the use of dues money from members to fight the legal battle against Campbell. He added there is a potential liability to member districts, with potential penalties being “substantial.”

King said the district regularly fulfills right-to-know requests, and supports those who use the law.

“Mars is on record as opposing the legal action taken by PSBA in suing Simon Campbell over his right to use the Right-to-Know laws of Pennsylvania to seek all sorts of information,” he said.

“We don’t really feel like our local tax dollars should be going to underwrite those things,” Ferguson said.