With the start of a federal trial less than a month away, the Kingfisher Board of Education on Monday night met in executive session for nearly three hours.

A bulk of that time was spent on the phone with the school district’s attorney Eric Janzen regarding the civil lawsuit filed against Kingfisher Public Schools, head football coach Jeff Myers, assistant coach Derek Patterson and former assistants Blake Eaton and Micah Nall.

The executive session was part of the board’s regular November meeting.

A motion was approved on Superintendent David Glover’s recommendation “to allow RFR to move forward” per his directive regarding the case.

“RFR” is Rosenstein, Fist & Ringold, the Tulsa firm representing the district in the lawsuit, which was filed in July 2021 by Mason Mecklenburg, who is alleging a culture of hazing, bullying and abuse during his time in the football program from 20172020. When asked after the meeting to further clarify his recommendation, Glover said the directive will be “to move forward with the case.”

The move was made during an agenda item calling for “discussion and possible board action to direct legal counsel to take action with regard to pending legal claim.”

The motion passed unanimously.

Present for the meeting were Charles Walker, Dana Golbek, Terry Payne and Brad Wittrock.

Carly Franks did not attend the meeting.

The trial is slated to begin Dec. 5 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma in Oklahoma City before Judge Charles Goodwin.

The defendants in the case filed motions for summary judgments, but those have not been ruled upon by Goodwin.

There was also a hearing on the defendants’ joint motion to strike the remaining dates on the scheduling order pending the court’s ruling on the individual defendants’ qualified immunity defense.

According to a minute entry that was filed in the docket report, Goodwin denied the defendants’ request.

The allegations from the civil lawsuit also prompted an investigation by multiple agencies, including the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation.

That investigation eventually led to charges against four people, three of whom were set to make court appearances Wednesday morning.

Charged in Kingfisher County District Court were Myers with a felony count of child neglect and Nall with felony counts of child abuse and perjury.

Justin Mecklenburg, Mason’s father, and Golbek were charged with failure to report child abuse, which is a misdemeanor.

The charges were filed by District Attorney Mike Fields’ office and were made in Kingfisher County District Court, which is where Wednesday’s appearances will be made.

Myers, Nall and Mecklenburg were set to appear. According to court records, Golbek’s appearance was moved to Dec. 6.