By: Diane Benjamin
The spontaneous Executive Session was not held on November 13th, it was held on November 8th at the end of a regular meeting. It was held in response to some disgruntled parents.
The Board briefly recessed, hopefully not to discuss whether to hold an Executive Session. Holding any discussions outside of a public meeting with a majority of the Board does violate the Open Meetings Act. This is from the minutes:
We know from the WGLT story why this meeting took place: http://wglt.org/post/unit-5-property-tax-bills-expected-stay-put#stream/0
At least we know minutes and audio should exist. The Board can resolve this issue by releasing the minutes.
Normal West parents and students have been left with no answers. Only the Board can provide them.
Again, Board members do not have to keep secret what is discussed in Executive Session. Any member can end this controversy today.
School Board elections will be held in early 2019. This is why who runs your schools matters.
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I believe and I don’t recall what year it was based on a court case that school boards had to either video and audio record an executive session or audio record. Hand written minutes would not suffice. I remember when we started that when I was on a board. We audio recorded the session. I don’t remember what the court case was about. Seems like there was a dispute as to what was in the minutes and what was said during the executive session.
It’s required!