My son started at public school last year, and a group of parents I’m part of has run into questions about our school board’s compliance with the Open Meetings Law. It appears most decisions are made in committees that are not open to the public or not well publicized, and the district has refused to let members of our group attend relevant committees. Notices of the committee meetings go only to the local paper, which is easy to miss.
The district says its past practice is not to take or post minutes or agendas for the committees that are open to public observation, because it says this is not a requirement. It also says that because its board subcommittee meetings did not involve formal motions, proposals, resolutions or anything formally voted upon, there have been no minutes to post.
Aren’t agendas and minutes a requirement of meetings of public bodies, even if they are not taking formal action or votes? And is a committee outside the Open Meetings Law only if it is advisory in nature?
Any entity consisting of two or more members of a public body, such as a committee or subcommittee consisting of members of a school board, falls within the requirements of the Open Meetings Law.
In other words, any committee with two or more school board members on it is considered a public body, which means they must provide notice of their meetings, post meeting documents online before the meeting, and post meeting minutes or a recording after the meeting.
Committees that do not have at least two school board members on them, or that only have advisory power, do not have to follow the Open Meetings Law requirements.
Committee on Open Government advisory opinion 3740
While the Open Meetings Law does not address the posting of agendas, it is implied that if an agenda is created it should be posted prior to the meeting, as stated in the opinion below.
