Parties & Counsel
Legal shorthand used here: d/b/a = “doing business as” (a trade name). LLC = limited liability company. BCSD = Bibb County School District. ORA = Open Records Act. MSJ / MPSJ = Motion for (Partial) Summary Judgment. FERPA / IDEA = federal student-privacy and special-education laws. NoA = Notice of Appearance. O.C.G.A. = Official Code of Georgia Annotated (Georgia’s statutes); § = “section”.
Plaintiff
Georgia Trust for Local News, LLC, d/b/a (doing business as) The Macon Melody
A Georgia limited liability company that operates The Macon Melody, a nonprofit community newsroom serving Macon-Bibb County (launched June 2024 with a $5 million Knight Foundation grant). GTLN is itself a subsidiary of the National Trust for Local News, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Filed suit to enforce Georgia’s Open Records Act (ORA) after the school district refused to disclose a settlement dollar amount.
Principal / LLC signatory: DuBose Porter — former Minority Leader of the Georgia House of Representatives (1982–2011), former Chair of the Democratic Party of Georgia, and longtime owner of The Courier Herald in Dublin, Georgia. Porter founded the Georgia Trust for Local News and currently serves as its Publisher Emeritus (effective February 2, 2026). His signature on the January 2026 substitution-of-counsel document confirms his authority to act for the LLC. Day-to-day operational control of GTLN sits with Danyale Starley (Interim Executive Director) and Pam Burney (General Manager). Newsroom leadership is held by Joshua Wilson, Executive Editor of The Macon Melody. Caleb Slinkard — who previously held the Executive Editor role at the Melody — now serves as Executive Editor of the Georgia Trust for Local News and Managing Editor of the Melody.
Plaintiff’s attorneys (current)
| Attorney | Firm | Ga. Bar # | Role |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lucas W. Andrews | Stanton Law, LLC (Atlanta) | 019533 | Lead counsel (since 1/7/2026) |
| Erika Pitzel | Stanton Law, LLC (Atlanta) | 752242 | Co-counsel |
About Stanton Law, LLC: A small Atlanta boutique (roughly a dozen attorneys) focused primarily on management-side employment counseling for businesses, with a commercial-litigation practice. Plaintiff’s move from a Macon solo to Stanton Law — timed roughly two months before the Partial MSJ (Motion for Summary Judgment — asking the judge to decide without a trial) — signals that plaintiff is marshaling additional litigation horsepower for the summary judgment push.
Plaintiff’s attorneys (former)
| Attorney | Firm | Ga. Bar # | Dates |
|---|---|---|---|
| Joy Ramsingh | Ramsingh Legal (Macon) | 862332 | 8/4/2025 – 1/8/2026 (withdrew) |
Ramsingh filed the Complaint, Rule Nisi Motion, and Reply, and negotiated the early procedural stipulations. She formally withdrew on January 8, 2026 when Stanton Law substituted in. The filings show a collegial handoff — no indication of strategic conflict.
Defendant
The Bibb County School District (BCSD)
A public school district serving Macon-Bibb County, Georgia. BCSD is an “agency” and “custodian” of records within the meaning of the Georgia Open Records Act (O.C.G.A. § 50-18-70(a)(2)(A) — O.C.G.A. is the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, Georgia’s state statute book; § means “section”). It receives state and federal education funding.
Defense attorneys
| Attorney | Firm | Ga. Bar # | Role |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bennett D. Bryan (BDB) | Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP (Atlanta) | 157009 | Co-counsel |
| Caroline L. Scalf (CLS) | Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP (Atlanta) | 413024 | Co-counsel |
About Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP: A large regional law firm headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, with 300+ attorneys across offices in NC, SC, GA, and DC. Representing school districts and public entities is a core practice area. Hiring two attorneys from a major regional firm — rather than a local Macon firm or in-house counsel — signals that BCSD is treating this case as significant and is prepared to spend meaningfully on its defense.
“BDB”, “CLS”, and “MM” in filenames: Defense attorneys typically use their initials to name files. “BDB” = Bennett D. Bryan; “CLS” = Caroline L. Scalf. The “MM” prefix on two plaintiff filenames (
260107_MM_Notice_of_Appearance.pdf,260108_Substitution_MM_w_exhibit.pdf) stands for “Macon Melody” — the plaintiff, not an attorney.
Pre-litigation ORR counsel (Parker Poe)
BCSD’s response to the Open Records Requests that preceded this litigation was handled by a different Parker Poe team than the Bryan/Scalf litigation pair:
| Attorney | Firm | Role in the record |
|---|---|---|
| Sherry H. Culves (Partner) | Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP (Atlanta) | Signed BCSD’s March 14, 2025 denial letter to Kerry Hatcher’s JH-settlement ORR and the parallel ORR cost estimates issued to Hatcher and two Alex II teachers in early 2025. |
| Lexi Trumble (Associate) | Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP (Atlanta) | Point of contact on BCSD ORR follow-up after the initial Culves denial. |
Former general counsel (BCSD)
| Attorney | Firm | Dates |
|---|---|---|
| Andrew Davidson, Esq. | Jones Cork, LLP (Macon) | BCSD general counsel through January 3, 2025 (firm termination date). Named recipient of both AG Letter A (Oct. 25, 2024) and AG Letter B (Apr. 24, 2025) — the AG’s office appears to have continued using Davidson as the contact of record even after Jones Cork’s termination. |
State-level actors in the pre-litigation record
These officials do not appear in the court docket — they are named on the two Georgia Attorney General mediation letters and the Georgia Department of Education response that are now archived under Pre-Litigation Record.
| Official | Office | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Kristen Settlemire | Senior Assistant Attorney General, Georgia Department of Law | Authored both AG Letter A (opening, Oct. 25, 2024) and AG Letter B (close-out, Apr. 24, 2025) in the Corley Open Government Mediation Program file. The close-out letter is Complaint Exhibit F. |
| Stacey Suber-Drake | Chief Legal Officer, Georgia Department of Education | Signed the April 14, 2025 GA DOE Response Letter declining state intervention and redirecting parent-petitioners to the AG Open Government Mediation Program. |
The Court
| Role | Name |
|---|---|
| Judge | Hon. Ken Smith, Superior Court of Bibb County |
| Courtroom | Courtroom E, Bibb County Courthouse |
| Clerk | Erica L. Woodford, Bibb County Superior Court Clerk |
About Judge Ken Smith: A Bibb County Superior Court judge appointed by Governor Brian Kemp in January 2024. He has handled both the Rule Nisi (Latin for “unless” — a show-cause order) briefing and the discovery-extension motion — meaning he has already read considerable material about this case and its FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act — the federal law protecting student education records) / IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act — the federal law governing special-education services) arguments. His 4/14/2026 decision to extend discovery gives BCSD 90 more days but does not foreclose his ability to rule on the Partial MSJ as a matter of law at the 4/29/2026 hearing.
The non-party in the background
Student “JH”
Under both state and federal law, courts keep the identity of minor students confidential. What is publicly known from BCSD’s own 7/18/2024 board minutes:
- The district’s board approved a settlement agreement for Student JH at its July 18, 2024 meeting.
- The vote was unanimous.
- No dollar figure was read aloud or recorded in the minutes (breaking a historical pattern in which settlement amounts were publicly disclosed in minutes — see Exhibits C and D to the Complaint).
The public record does not confirm what kind of underlying claim produced the JH settlement. The settlement was voted on at the July 18, 2024 BCSD board meeting; the board minutes simply read “Settlement for Student JH (ACTION). The Board voted unanimously to approve this action item.” No amount was recorded.
BCSD’s “Ninth Defense” (added in its Amended Answer) argues the student should be joined as an indispensable party. The student’s parents are not parties to this ORA (Open Records Act) lawsuit, and joining them would require revealing JH’s identity — an outcome the plaintiff argues the parents would themselves be unlikely to want.
Underlying civil litigation (not this case)
The 2024 board-approved settlement itself arose from a separate civil lawsuit brought on behalf of the student’s family against BCSD. That underlying case — not docketed on this site — was the factual matter that produced the dollar figure at the heart of this Open Records dispute.
That underlying case has not been publicly identified in court filings and is not documented on this site.