The Blaine County School District board of trustees has held seven "special meetings" in 2010 with only scant advance notice provided to the public.
Advance meeting notices were not posted on the school district's website, nor were they provided to the news media.
Instead, the district posted hard-copy notices a few days before each meeting at four locations in Hailey—the district office, the post office, the Community Campus and Wood River Middle School.
At one special meeting, the board approved appointment of a new assistant superintendent, the second most powerful position in district administration and historically the heir apparent to become superintendent. At another, it approved a contract with the Blaine County Education Association, commonly referred to as the teachers' union.
At a third meeting, the board heard a sales pitch from McKinstry, a Seattle-based engineering company. At a regular meeting the following evening, the board approved a $15.1 million contract with McKinstry for construction management and engineering services for an extensive geothermal development project throughout the school district.
Public attendance at the special meetings was either sparse or nonexistent, unlike regular school board meetings that are extensively publicized well in advance and are often well attended by parents and other school district patrons.
The latest special meeting, a trustee workshop on the fiscal year 2011 proposed district budget, was held Tuesday. A handful of district patrons who had heard about the meeting attended, but the meeting was unlike last year's budget workshop, which was well publicized in advance by the school district and accordingly by the Idaho Mountain Express.
An overflow crowd attended the 2009 budget workshop in a meeting that lasted about four hours and was vibrant with public questions, comments and criticisms about district proposed expenditures for fiscal year 2010.
In response to questions from the Express, District Superintendent Lonnie Barber denied that the school board has violated the Idaho Open Meeting Law, which provides extensive guidelines for notice and conduct of regular and special meetings for school boards and other governing bodies in the state.
For special meetings, the law requires only that advance notice be posted in a prominent public place at least 24 hours before the start of the meeting and that a "good faith effort" be made to provide advance notification to the "news media requesting notification."
The word "requesting" provides the district with a possible loophole for not notifying the news media in advance of special meetings, because until Wednesday the Express had not specifically requested advance notice. Nonetheless, the Express has provided extensive coverage of the school district during the past two years, including coverage of every regular school board meeting, every legally required public hearing, most court hearings and many other school special events and meetings.
"Yes, we have to tell the news media, but they have to tell us they want to be informed," Barber said. "We'll call you every single time if you let us know you want to know. Our intention is not to exclude anybody.
"We're not doing it on purpose. We're going to do a better job. We want to be so open that everybody knows everything."
In an e-mail sent to the Express on Thursday, school district attorney Adam King wrote that he had reviewed the situation.
"It appears from everything that I have seen and heard that the school district is in full compliance with the notice provisions of the open meeting law," King stated.
School Board Chair Julie Dahlgren also said that the school district is in compliance.
"We are not in violation of any open meeting law," Dahlgren said. "The meetings are posted—I don't think I have anything to add to that."
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Open meeting law
The Idaho Open Meeting Law requires that the Idaho Attorney General's Office ensure compliance with the law for state agencies and that county prosecuting attorneys ensure compliance for county-level governing bodies.
"Our office hasn't received anything regarding an open-meetings-law or alleged open-meetings-law violation by the school district, so I'm not exactly sure what the facts are," Blaine County Chief Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Tim Graves said Wednesday. "But certainly if we got information there was a violation we would look into it."
Graves said that if a governing body is found to hold a meeting in violation of the law, then any decisions made during that meeting are nullified.
"There are civil penalties, as well as a criminal penalty, for certain conduct," he said. "I'm not sure at this point, without having the facts, how extensive those would be or what our response would be."
The Idaho Open Meeting Law also requires that meeting agendas be posted for special meetings along with the meeting notice and that amendments to the agenda be posted publicly at least 24 hours before the start of the meeting.
Unlike regular school board meetings, minutes from special meetings are not available through the school district website. Hard copies of the special meeting minutes are, however, available for public review at the district office.
Special meetings
The school board's first special meeting this year was held Feb. 8 and was a trustee workshop on judicial confirmation, a legally required process to authorize borrowing on future tax revenues.
The school board held a second special meeting on Feb. 16 for a student expulsion hearing, which was conducted in executive session. Also at the meeting, the board convened into open session and approved a student travel request submitted by Wood River High School teacher Mike Glenn. The travel request was not listed on the meeting notice and agenda.
The board held two more expulsion hearings in executive session at a special meeting on Feb. 23, but also approved two items not listed on the meeting notice and agenda—a student teacher contract and an affiliation agreement with Grand Canyon University.
The board heard the McKinstry contract proposal at a special meeting on March 8. The contract was approved by the board at its regular monthly meeting on March 9. Also at the March 8 meeting, the board approved appointing Carey School teacher Ron Martinez as 2010 summer school principal. The Martinez appointment was not listed on the meeting notice and agenda.
The board approved hiring Wood River High School Principal John Blackman as assistant superintendent at a special meeting on April 6. The Express was notified of Blackman's selection later that day.
The board conducted another student expulsion hearing on April 29. Also at the meeting, and not listed on the meeting notice and agenda, the board approved the contract with the teachers' union. Approval of the contract was not announced publicly until the May 11 regular school board meeting.
Minutes were not available for the budget workshop held Tuesday.
School trustees
Trustees Steve Guthrie and Mari Beth Matthews did not return telephone calls regarding the special meetings by press deadline Thursday.
Trustee Daniel Parke said he believes the school board is in compliance with the law.
"We have followed the open meeting law, as best as we have determined," Parke said. "There are times when we have to meet when we can. We are not paid officials and sometimes we have time constraints. All we can do is comply with the law."
Trustee Paul Bates said the school board needs to do a better job of informing the public about special meetings.
"Any meeting which is an open school board meeting demands to be advertised to the best of our ability," Bates said. "Our responsibility is to the public. Could we do a better job? Yes.
"I am a party to it, and I appreciate it when people bring things to my attention that have gone past me. At any point where we have done a poor job of something, it's our responsibility to address that.
"The rest of the school board—I've not been able to get them to hold a town meeting. I don't know why the attitude is what it is."
Terry Smith: tsmith@mtexpress.com
Paul Bates,
Julie Dahlgren,
Steve Guthrie,
Mari Beth Matthews,
Daniel Parke.
