The Kansas State Board of Education apparently paid thousands of dollars to the Overland Park law firm of Gates Shields for a series of letters reprimanding sitting Board Member Debby Potter for actions that appear to be within her scope of authority as a board member.
As earlier reported in The Sentinel, attorney Mark Ferguson sent Potter a “summary of several topics which cause me concern as legal counsel for the Kansas State Board of Education” including:
- Potter’s contact with the parents of Kansas School for the Deaf students
- Her “bizarre” (Ferguson’s words) statements about the operation of the state board
- Potter’s request of an opinion by Attorney General Kobach on the authority of the state board
- Her direct contact with a prospective state vendor
Following the publication of our story on the Ferguson-Potter Letters, we filed an Open Records request with the KSBOE for invoices from the law firm for the past year. Invoice 3481 for services rendered in November 2025 details the work Ferguson undertook on the letters sent to Potter.
On November 17:
discuss and exchange drafts and discussions with Board leadership and Commissioner related to Board Member Debby Potter; review, drafting and revision to 5 draft letters to Debby Potter regarding various issues and concerns;
On November 18th:
Revise and finalize several letters to Board Member Debby Potter, with enclosures; circulate to Board leadership and Commissioner;
On November 19th
Provide update and circulate copies of letters to Debby Potter to entire Board;
Also on November 19th, Ferguson added this entry to his memorandum, apparently in reference to questions we asked for our earlier story:
Conduct in depth (sic) legal and data base (sic) research regarding association and legal connectivity between KPI and The Sentinel.
Ferguson attempted to prevent The Sentinel from writing about the letters to Potter, bizarrely claiming attorney-client privilege. No ‘research’ to determine our ownership was necessary, however, as we acknowledge being owned by Kansas Policy Institute (KPI) in every story we write referencing KPI.
Ferguson’s firm billed state taxpayers in early December $11,766.82 for Invoice 3481, which includes other work the firm did for the Board of Education apart from the letters prepared and sent to Potter. The invoice does not specify how much the Board paid for work on the letters to Potter; it only shows a daily billing total for all services. However, the total appears to be several thousand dollars.
After receiving the invoices, we asked Kansas State Board of Education Chair Cathy Hopkins if she or anyone else authorized Mark Ferguson to write the letters to Debbie Potter, but she did not respond.
