NEWARK – The Worcester County Board of Education addressed its violations of the Maryland Open Meetings Act this week.
On Tuesday the school board acknowledged the Feb. 7 opinion by the state’s Open Meetings Compliance Board (OMCB) that determined it had violated four provisions of the Open Meetings Act. Heather Stansbury, attorney for the school board, said the violations had been addressed and that officials were grateful for the guidance the ruling provided.
“It really gives us some clarity and a guide moving forward,” Stansbury said. “The utmost important thing with this board and all boards is that we have absolute transparency.”
The OMCB reviewed the school board’s practices after a complaint was filed by Craig O’Donnell. O’Donnell, a former Kent County News reporter and advocate for government transparency, had reviewed the school board’s minutes in 2017 and identified several violations of the Open Meetings Act. In a Feb. 7 opinion, members of the OMCB identified the violations, which related to the school board’s failure to provide certain information related to its closed session meetings.
Bill Gordy, president of the school board, summarized the violations during Tuesday’s meeting. The first violation, which related to the fact that closed session meetings were not listed on the school system’s main online calendar, was addressed by officials before the opinion was even received.
“The compliance board recognized this change had been made by the time the opinion was issued,” Gordy said.
The second violation, he said, was that the statements that accompanied the closing of a meeting weren’t being made properly. The OMCB said the board needed to provide a statement regarding the reason for a closed session.
“The board is now in compliance with making those statements,” Gordy said.
Gordy said the third and fourth violations identified by the OMCB dealt with the school board’s minutes.
“It was determined that some of our practices were proper but that in other instances our minutes needed to be more detailed,” Gordy said. “We are taking all steps to have proper minutes at this time.”
The board voted 6-0, with Sara Thompson absent, to approve a motion by member Bob Rothermel to acknowledge and accept the OMCB opinion.
“I get the feeling, not to downplay any of this, but a lot of it is housekeeping stuff in terms of dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s,” Rothermel said.
