The latest meeting below for Saturday May 11 at 9:00 has been canceled. Perhaps the page below will still be helpful for you as one of my posts on how to read an agenda. Also, I am working on getting the agenda for a meeting scheduled for Monday, May 13 at 6:00 pm, and I intend to post that one before meeting time. Stay tuned for that in a separate post.
There’s a special board meeting on SATURDAY morning May 11 at 9:00 am. Below are two agendas. The first one is for May 10. After posting that agenda, I was notified by Superintendent Moore that a new agenda has been posted for May 11.
One reason I publish agendas is to educate folks about their importance and how to read them. Drafting them is an art form and quite challenging. Once a lawyer gets involved in drafting, well, good luck trying to figure out what is going on. On the other hand, there are reasons for lawyer involvement, such as here where it appears a contract employee is getting fired.
Here is the original agenda. (Do not attempt to go to this meeting; it is on an incorrect date.)
I actually prefer the agenda above because at item 3 it indicates that there will be some discussion in open session regarding staff terminations. Sunlight on government employee termination is a good thing. But, there are some legal pitfalls. For example, if a board member accidentally blurts out in public session that an employee is being fired for an illegal reason (ie, she is pregnant), then a lawsuit might follow. This agenda is appropriate because it covers both an open and closed session.
But, a second agenda has been put out. You can go to this meeting because it is on the correct day and time. Notice that “termination“ has been deleted and the open discussion has been removed.
Now, I don’t have enough information to determine whether this is sufficient notice under the Texas Open Meetings Act. It is not my purpose here to throw darts at an agenda. But, the second agenda indicates to me there has been some Eichelbaum Wardell wordsmithing going on, because “termination“ clearly has a different meaning than “non-renewal”. There is a case out there relating to a teacher challenging whether they received adequate notice of termination by the school board, so these waters run deep indeed. What is clear is that personnel mattters can be addressed in a closed session, and in certain circumstances the subject of that closed session can ask that it be addressed in open. (551.074) Also clear is that any final action will have to be done in open, as is done here at item 5.
The final issue is whether this board will even announce the name(s) of the individual(s) at item 5. Such information would obviously be public were it requested under the Public Information Act, so there is no reason to withhold it in an open meeting. (I will be requesting the names and more if it is not made public during the meeting.) I hope the District will be in the sunshine on this point.
A. Meeting Analysis: meeting canceled.
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