News analysis: School board overhauls public meeting notice after receiving opinion it violated open meetings law
The Pelham Board of Education has overhauled the language in its public meeting notice following an advisory opinion that it has been violating the state Open Meetings Law.
Here is the first paragraph from last Friday’s notice for Wednesday’s meeting with the new language in italics:
The Board of Education will meet at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, December 8 in the Professional Development Center (Room 104) of Hutchinson School located at 48 Fifth Street, Pelham, NY 10803. It is anticipated that the Board will immediately consider a motion to enter executive session to discuss the record of a particular student. The Board is expected to reconvene in public at approximately 7:30pm and continue the regular business meeting in the Hutchinson School cafeteria.
Here is a notice with the language used during the past three years (in this case dated Oct. 29):
The Board of Education will meet at 7:30pm on Wednesday, November 3 in the Pelham Middle School library located on the 2nd floor of Pelham Middle School, 28 Franklin Place, Pelham, NY 10803. The meeting can be viewed on YouTube live. Prior to the public meeting, the Board is expected to meet at 6:30pm in the Middle School Chorus Room and immediately enter into executive session to discuss collective negotiations.
In addition to the change in language, the sentence stating the meeting will begin at 6:30 p.m. now begins the notification, making it clear when the public meeting actually begins, at which time the board—as it almost always does—will then recess to hold a one-hour executive session.
The new language appears to bring the board into closer compliance with one requirement of the Open Meetings Law, However, when asked why the change had been made, a Pelham Union Free School District spokesman made no mention of the advisory opinion from the state Committee on Open Government that the board was violating the law.
“The language in the meeting notice was changed to more clearly articulate the board’s process for opening the meeting in public, recessing into executive session and reconvening in public,” said Alex Wolf, public information officer for the district.
One of the law’s requirements is the public be able to witness the motion to go into executive session and the vote to do so. As the board’s public meeting still begins in a smaller room separate from the main venue for the rest of the meeting and the notice states the board will vote to go into executive session “immediately,” it remains unlikely any member of the public will turn up for the executive session motion.
Many municipal and education boards, including both village boards in the Town of Pelham, convene executive sessions at the end of their public meetings.
“My understanding is that the board meets in executive session at the beginning of its meeting as doing so allows the board to prepare for items that may come up for discussion or be voted on during the public meeting,” said Wolff. “These items would be limited to what is permissible under open meetings law, such as personnel decisions, etc. We have provided the time and the location for the opening of the meeting and any member of the public is welcome to join the board in public at 6:30 p.m. in the professional development center at Hutchinson School (Room 104).”
Wolff did not respond to a question on why the open portion of the public meeting that begins at 6:30 p.m., specifically the motion and vote on the executive session, is not included in the school board’s streaming video feed.
The Pelham Examiner requested the advisory opinion from the Committee on Open Government, which wrote the board’s consistent practice of entering closed-door executive sessions without first voting on a motion to do so with the public present violated the law. Separately, it also said the board must identify the specific legal case it intends to talk about when the stated purpose of the executive session is litigation. This it does not do. The Committee on Open Government is the state agency that oversees the Open Meetings, Freedom of Information and Personal Privacy Protection laws.
Editor’s note: At 5 p.m. on Tuesday, the Pelham Union Free School District changed the location of the work session cited in the notice above. “The school board will resume its public meeting in the Hutchinson atrium,” according to the email on the new location.
