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Keep
a knockin’ but you can’t come in School Board Meets (and Meets and Meets) Where the Sun Don’t Shine By
DAVIDA AMENTA and GEOFF
DAVIDIAN ShorewoodNewsroom
staff writers What consenting adults do behind closed doors is
their own But when those adults
are a government body with $65 million in public money to play with, what
they do is the public’s business. Can you imagine what the Shorewood School Board was doing when it slammed the door on
taxpayers 14 times this year – an average of one closed door meeting every
other week since January 1, 2021? We aren’t talking prurient interests
here, but civics. Wisconsin state law is clear that governmental
bodies can meet in closed session only in exceptional circumstances, such as
personnel matters, to discuss potential or actual litigation, or for labor
negotiations. In such cases, the government body must give notice of the
meeting and indicate the specific nature of the business. The
board wants to quote only a statutory exemption rather than provide specifics
so that the public can object if the meeting is not legal. That is like a
teen-age couple announcing they are going to do homework then retiring to a
bedroom and locking the door. When the parents knock and ask what is going
on, they reply “Our lawyers said we could be in here in secret.” While
the board discussed the evaluation and contract of former superintendent
Bryan Davis on January 21, 2021, the wording of the 11 other closed-meeting
notices implies they also involved Davis, who quit this summer. According to
board policies: The board considers Superintendent
performance to be identical to district performance. District accomplishment
of the Board’s Results policies, and district operation according to
the values expressed in the Board’s Operational Expectations policies,
will be considered successful Superintendent performance. These two
components define the Superintendent’s job responsibilities,
and are the basis for the Superintendent’s performance evaluation. In addition to the 14 closed-session
meetings, in 2021 the school board has met five times with restricted public
access. Four of these five meetings concerned the Integrated
Comprehensive Systems for Equity (ICS) initiative and were open to only select members of the community. Board
members also attended a workshop on Coherent Governance on May 17,
2021. Although ICS and Coherent Governance both are central to the
board’s operations, Board President Paru Shah said no board business was
conducted at any of these meetings. By comparison, the Whitefish Bay School
District has held 12 regular meetings and Committee of the Whole meetings,
two per month since January, and met in closed session just six times. The
Greendale School District has held two closed session meetings so far in
2021. Shah said that while “the Superintendent
is the only employee the board directly supervises, our work also includes
discussions with administration about other personnel issues. And as you
know, we have been in the process of selecting an interim superintendent,
which has required a number of additional meetings.” She said the board
cleared the meetings with its lawyer. So, the kids are in the bedroom until
the parents kick down the door. Return to ShorewoodNewsroom.com |
