Lazaro Aleman
ECB Publishing, Inc.
Jefferson County School Board Member Shirley Washington wants the district to begin making preparations for the take-back of the schools, and she wants the deliberations for the transition plan to be done absent public participation.
On Monday evening, March 8, Washington pressed School Attorney George Tom Reeves to explore the possibility of the board holding executive sessions to discuss the foreseeable transition.
Washington said she had heard from her Gadsden County counterparts that they frequently held executive sessions after meetings. She asked Reeves what was the possibility of the local board doing the same.
Reeves said that to the best of his knowledge, executive sessions were permitted for limited reasons, including discussions involving collective bargaining and pending litigation. Possibly it was for these reasons that the Gadsden County School Board was holding the executive meetings, he suggested.
“No, no,” Washington responded. She was sure these were not the reasons why the Gadsden County executive sessions were being called. She asked Reeves to check with Gadsden County officials and determine if there was a way for the board here to hold closed meetings other than for the reasons that Reeves had cited.
Per Florida Sunshine Law, according to the Digital Media Law Project (DMLP), school boards are defined as public collegial bodies and hence required to hold open meetings, which are generally defined as any formal or casual gathering of two or more members of a public body to discuss or take action regarding official business or policy.
The term also applies to information gathering and fact-finding sessions called by such public bodies.
Under Florida law, according to the DMLP, closed meetings are allowed on only limited occasions, including a public body’s discussion with its attorney over pending litigation, strategy discussions between a board and its chief executive officer prior to collective bargaining negotiations, hearing involving minors and meeting involving probable cause determinations or considering confidential records.
The DMLP, however, adds a caveat.
“Unfortunately,” it notes, “the state legislature has passed over 200 exemptions and they are not located in one specific statutory provision.”
Is it possible that Gadsden County is operating under one of these exemptions? If it is, Reeves may well learn the answer.
Washington’s comments arose early in the meeting, when she and School Board Member Sandra Saunders were questioning School Superintendent Eydie Tricquet about the expected transfer of the schools from Somerset-Jefferson to the district next school year. The two pressed the school superintendent to get on with the preparations for the transfer.
Washington and Saunders expressed the view that the superintendent shouldn’t be waiting for Somerset to provide certain requested information but should instead be taking the initiative and formulating a plan and budget for the transition, “whether Somerset was involved or not.”
The two emphasized that there was no time to lose, given the number of things that needed to be accomplished for the transition and how quickly a year could pass. Having been on the board for years, they well knew from experience how easily things could go wrong, they said.
“We’ve got to come with a curriculum and the kinds of programs that we’re going to provide to the children,” Saunders said, adding that now was the time to act.
School Board Member Gladys Roann-Watson suggested that Tricquet might also want to check with other districts in similar circumstances to learn how they had handled the situation. She herself was willing to reach out and help if necessary, Roann-Watson said.
It was Washington’s suggestion that the board should begin holding meetings and discussions to determine how best to accomplish the transition and decide what and how to do it. It was then she that suggested the idea of holding executive sessions, noting that she knew from experience what could come if too many voices joined the discussion in a public forum.
Washington reiterated her request to Reeves at the meeting’s conclusion, pressing him to make sure to get with Gadsden County school officials to learn how they managed to hold executive sessions. Reeves promised to do so and report his findings back to the board.
For a view of the Citizens Guide to Florida Government in the Sunshine Law, go to https://brechner.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/citizen-guide-2006.pdf, or visit www.myfloridalegal.com/sun.nsf/sunmanual.
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