State official: School board goals discussion not in compliance with law

KINGSTON, N.Y. » A closeddoor, self-evaluation by school district trustees violated the state Open Meetings Law, the state’s leading watchdog says.

The executive session was conducted during a Board of Education meeting earlier this month, when trustees said they would be discussing a selfevaluation.

“It’s our self-evaluation, we don’t have to make it public,” board President Nora Scherer said.

In a telephone interview after the closed-door meeting, Scherer said the discussion involved goals that were previously set for board members.

“We align our goals with the district’s goals and the superintendent’s goals,” she said.

“We set them last year,” she added. “Shortly, we’ll be creating draft goals for this coming year, but, again, we’ll be looking to align them with the superintendent goals and the district goals, which should be coming very soon. Like, within the next few weeks.”

Scherer noted no action was taken to update the goals.

“We’re reflecting on the goals (and) how they were accomplished,” she said. “But we’re not setting anything for next year. That will happen in an open session, probably sometime in August.”

Scherer said the board is “encouraged to do a selfevaluation and we’re not required to share that. That’s for board growth and performance. We’re not required to share that — we’re not employees, we’re elected officials.”

But Robert Freeman, the executive director of the state Committee on Open Government, said the board should have only taken their discussion about goals behind closed doors when talking about the employment history of particular people. However, he added that, as elected officials, the trustees are not considered employees.

“When we’re talking about the board as an entity, those qualifiers simply do not apply,” he said, meaning trustees’ discussions about themselves cannot be cloaked from public view as a valid exception to the requirements of the Open Meetings Law.

Freeman has previously said board conversation about goals could be considered the “most important meeting of the year” and should be open

to the public regardless of whether action is expected to be taken. “If ... the board discusses goals or functions of any person who might serve in the position of superintendent, I do not believe that there would be a basis for entry into executive session,” he said.

In written opinions on the business of self-evaluations, Freeman has cited court decisions that stated “every thought, as well as every affirmative act of a public official as it relates to and is within the scope of one’s official duties is a matter of public concern.

“It is the entire decisionmaking process that the (state) Legislature intended to affect by the enactment of this statute.”