Chester BOE gets OMA lecture

<p class="p1">Nearly a month after being informed by the Public Access Bureau of Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan's office that it violated the Open Meetings Act during its January and February meetings, the Chester District 139 Board of Education got a brief education about OMA during its June 16 meeting.

<p class="p1">Making the 15-minute presentation was the district's attorney, Barney Mundorf, who has a client list of about 50 school districts as part of the Guin Mundorf firm.

<p class="p1"> "Can we have seven board members get together and not violate the Open Meetings Act? And the answer is absolutely," Mundorf said. "You can have seven board members get together to go to a ballgame, to go to a birthday party, to have a Christmas party and that doesn't violate the Open Meetings Act as long as you're not discussing school business.

<p class="p1">"The law defines a meeting as a majority of a quorum, so if a quorum is four, a majority is three. So, if there are three board members together and you're talking about school-related business, that qualifies as a meeting under the Open Meetings Act."

<p class="p1">Board member Dan Colvis asked who the board is required to post its meeting agendas to and whether the board has to give them to local media.

<p class="p1">"If the media has submitted a written standing request to receive your agendas, then you are obligated to forward them a copy of your agenda," Mundorf said.

<p class="p1">Colvis asked if the media has to renew that every year.

<p class="p1">"Not necessarily," Mundorf said.

<p class="p1">Mundorf said open meeting minutes are not approved to be released to the public until they are approved the following month.

<p class="p1">"Like you did tonight, you approved the minutes from your last meeting, so the minutes from your last meeting are now available to the public," Mundorf said. "And you guys post them on the website."

<p class="p1">Colvis later asked when the board went into closed session if someone, "from the general public," would leave a recording device or "stand outside the doorway and listen to our closed session minutes" what action the board could take against that person.

<p class="p1">"That would certainly be a violation of state law," Mundorf said. "If they're violating your rules, it possibly jeopardizes the confidentiality of student discipline information you might discuss, confidential school information, you have the right under Section 24-24 of the school code to bar them from school property for up to 12 months."

<p class="p1">Mundorf also complimented the board on its agenda, especially how detailed it is.

<p class="p1">"You have actually the positions that you're going to hire, fire, you have the names of the individuals you're going to hire or accept resignations on is all on your agenda," Mundorf said. "That is, again, more than what is required. We have advised our clients that you can put general topics under personnel items such as 'consider employment of certified staff' or 'consider employment of non-certified staff' or 'consider resignation of certified or noncertified staff.'"

<p class="p1">Mundorf noted that the exception that three board members can meet under is Illinois Education Labor Relations Act rules to discuss collective bargaining with unions.

<p class="p1">"You can have a bargaining session this evening with the teacher's union and you're going to go back and forth in the bargaining process, all seven board members can attend, all seven board members can participate and that meeting does not have to be posted," Mundorf said. "There's no agenda, there's no minutes, collective bargaining meetings are exempt.

<p class="p1">"Other than that, if there's three board members together talking school business, it is a meeting."

<p class="p1">In regard to public comment, Mundorf said the board president has the authority to limit the number of speakers and the time they can speak.

<p class="p1">"Because you have business to get to," Mundorf said. "So a lot of times we'll limit it to five people - four people for the issue, five people against the issue - we'll give them two minutes each."

<p class="p1">Mundorf explained closed session minutes - a point of contention in the PAB's May 20 determination letter that stated the board's minutes during the Jan. 21 and Feb. 18 meetings "are extremely brief, consisting almost entirely of single-sentence descriptions of matters discussed."

<p class="p1">The PAB acknowledged that OMA does not address how detailed summaries of discussion in minutes must be, but it has concluded that one-sentence general statements in minutes about "discussion" are insufficient.

<p class="p1">"I think the attorney general has a different opinion on what is sufficient or not, so it is what it is," Mundorf said. "We believe as long as you've identified who's present in closed session, you've described the general topic of what was discussed, that meets the requirements of the Open Meetings Act."

<p class="p1">Prior to the meeting, the board met briefly to approve the district's amended 2015-16 budget. Budget summary documents acquired from the district office showed the district with an ending cash balance in its Educational fund of $426,125 on June 30 - the end of its fiscal year.

<p class="p1">Expenditures exceeded revenues in the three major categories - Educational, Operations and Maintenance and Transportation - by a combined $507,609.

<p class="p1">Employee salaries and benefits cost the district more than $5.9 million.

<p class="p1">"What we've had to do is move some money from working cash into the (educational) fund and (operations and maintenance) fund to make our balances look better," said Interim District Superintendent Rick Goodman.

<p class="p1">During its regular meeting, which immediately followed the budget meeting, the board approved a transfer of $450,000 from working cash to the educational fund and $150,000 from working cash to the building fund.

<p class="p1">"It's kinda what we expected," Goodman said of the budget picture. "We still have more bills to come in."

<p class="p1">In other news, the board discussed moving the date of the Chester High School graduation a week forward to get it off of Memorial Day weekend and a proposal will be brought to the board for its July meeting.

<p class="p1">The board agreed to continue holding graduation on a Sunday, but at a possible earlier time than 3 p.m.

<p class="p1">"I see only positives moving the date forward," said CHS Principal Dr. Sarah Gass.

<p class="p1">Gass also updated the board on school fees for the 2016-17 school year, noting that as students switch schedules, the effect changes a lot.

<p class="p1">Gass noted that a flat fee, instead of a $5 per semester course, be charged to high school students and a proposal will be brought to the July meeting.

<p class="p1">Under Coaching/Volunteers, the board had questions about the employment of Boyd Miles as assistant junior high baseball coach and whether that was a contractually paid position.

<p class="p1">Chester Grade School Assistant Principal/Athletic Director Dave Kaiser said the position contains a 2 percent stipend and Miles received two paychecks for coaching junior high baseball last season.

<p class="p1">"I don't care if it's in the contract or not," said Board President Mitch Hammel. "If they're not a teacher in the district, you do not have to pay someone from the outside to come in and coach."

<p class="p1">Miles was later approved as a volunteer coach.

<p class="p1">Roundup

<p class="p1">&bull; The board approved the request of Kids Community Bible Study for the use of CGS facilities on Mondays from October 17 through November 14, 2016.

<p class="p1">&bull; The board approved the high school play for 2016-17 (Buckshot and Blossoms) and the musical for 2017-18 (Little Mermaid).

<p class="p1">The board approved the first reading of the CHS handbook and Extra-Curricular Code of Conduct for 2016-17. Gass noted that Senate Bill 100 would be causing a lot of changes with the handbook, while the Code of Conduct is not changing.

<p class="p1">&bull; The board approved the CHS C.E.O. class to be counted for Consumer Education credit.

<p class="p1">&bull; The board approved the joint committee's evaluation plan.

<p class="p1">&bull; The board approved CHS and CGS lunch/breakfast pricing for the 2016-17 school year. Milk will remain the same at 40 cents, while breakfast at CGS will be $1.20.

<p class="p1">Lunch for K-6 grades will be $1.90, while grades seven and eight will be $2.10. Lunch at CHS will be $2.25.

<p class="p1">&bull; The board adopted the prevailing rate of wages resolution.

<p class="p1">&bull; The board appointed board member Tom Welge to the Perandoe Representative Assembly.

<p class="p1">&bull; The board approved or employed the following coaches: Joe Crain (volunteer, bass fishing), Paul Estel (volunteer, bass fishing), Alisa Herrell (CGS cheerleading), Tyler Search (8th grade boys basketball), Danny Valleroy (7th grade boys basketball) and Chris Toledo (CHS head golf coach).

<p class="p1">&bull; The board accepted the resignation of Kenny Ragland (custodian), Jenny Stumpe (CGS cross country coach) and Erin Belton (8th grade softball). It was noted that Belton's resignation was for only one year and she will pick it back up in 2017-18.

<p class="p1">&bull; The board employed four paraprofessionals for the coming school year (Haley Davis, Mecca Korando, Jamie Ennis and Becky Cowell).

<p class="p1">&bull; Lastly, the board tabled the contract for Curriculum Director Shirley Stegmann.