Short answer is maybe here, maybe there, maybe not. For some reason in 2016 or 2017 they stopped posting their minutes where you would expect to find them. Why?
So, in trying to figure out when they approved the new Superintendent contract (that was already signed even tho they are voting tonight) I was interested in seeing the minutes of the meetings. Instead, I found a shocking (or maybe now knowing how the school board operates) discovery.
BOARD DOCS?
The Madison School Board uses an agenda, minutes and legislation tracking system called Board Docs, sort of like the Legistar system the city and county use, but its different.
I assumed all the minutes would just be in that system. I mean, that’s why they have the system. But here is what I found.
The minutes mysteriously stop in 2018 and there are no 2019 or 2020 minutes to click on.
And When I clicked on 2018 – nothing was there. The last minutes they put in the system were in 2017.
And, they only put the “regular” board meeting minutes in there, none from any of the other meetings.
MMSD WEBSITE?
I searched their website and clicked everywhere I could think of to find the minutes to no avail. So I turned to facebook, knowing several of my facebook friends follow the school board much more closely than I do.
Jackie Woodruff found this:
But if you click on the link the minutes stopped in 2016.
ED HUGHES SUGGESTS
I’m not sure what meeting minutes I’m looking for to see when they decided to hire the superintendent, but I think its the January 17th meeting. But using this method there are no meeting minutes for these meetings on January 27th (open or closed meeting), January 17th, January 16th, January 15th, January 14th, January 13th or January 11th – unless I’m doing something wrong, but the none of these agendas have minutes from the prior meetings to approve.
In theory, I think he is correct, this is the only way to find the minutes, so if this doesn’t work they don’t exist?
ANOTHER PRIVATE COMMENT
Someone who follows the school board closer than I told me this “Minutes are a mess. For some meetings, the minutes have been retroactively posted with the agenda on Boarddocs. For other meetings, you need to find the meeting where the minutes were approved, and look at that agenda item. The last time I tried that I was looking for a March 2019 meeting, they were approved in October or November of 2019 (by a Board where the majority had not been in office in March), and there was nothing attached to the agenda…”
Sure enough, check this out. On January 27th they are approving the JULY minutes!!!!
Uh, why does it take 6 months to get the minutes done?
A SIMPLE REQUEST
Hopefully they won’t make me to a more formal open records request and wait months for the information when it is no longer relevant. I drafted this email to the Barb Osborn.
from: Brenda Konkel <brendakonkel@gmail.com>to: Barbara Lehman <bjosborn@madison.k12.wi.us>
date: Feb 3, 2020, 9:14 AM
subject: Could you please send the January minutes
I’m looking for the minutes from the January 11th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th and 27th meetings. Could you please send them to me? Thanks!
Any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask.
Brenda Konkel
CLOSED MEETINGS STILL NEED MINUTES
Before you say there don’t need to be minutes for closed meetings . . . fact check! From the Wisconsin Attorney General’s Open Meetings Law Compliance Guide (page 22-24 has footnotes if you want more info:
The open meetings law requires a governmental body to create and preserve a record of all motions and roll-call votes at its meetings. This requirement applies to both open and closed sessions. Written minutes are the most common method used to comply with the requirement, but they are not the only permissible method. It can also be satisfied if the motions and roll-call votes are recorded and preserved in some other way, such as on a tape recording. As long as the body creates and preserves a record of all motions and roll-call votes, it is not required by the open meetings law to take more formal or detailed minutes of other aspects of the meeting. Other statutes outside the open meetings law, however, may prescribe particular minute-taking requirements for certain governmental bodies and officials that go beyond what is required by the open meetings law.
The open meetings law does not specify a timeframe in which a body must create a record of all motions and roll-call votes. In the absence of a specific statutory timeframe, issues can arise. In Journal Times v. City of Racine Board of Police and Fire Commissioners, the Racine Board of Police and Fire Commissioners voted on a motion in a closed session meeting, but did not contemporaneously create a record of the motion. Instead, the motion was included in the minutes of the meeting, which were not finished and approved by the Commission until three months after the meeting. In a non-party brief, DOJ argued that Wis. Stat. § 19.88(3) should be construed as requiring that a record of all motions must be made at the time of the meeting in question or as soon thereafter as practicable. While the court resolved the case on other grounds without deciding this issue, as a best practice, it is advisable that the motions and roll call votes of a meeting of a governmental body be recorded at the time of the meeting or as soon thereafter as practicable.
Although Wis. Stat. § 19.88(3) does not indicate how detailed the record of motions and votes should be, the general legislative policy of the open meetings law is that “the public is entitled to the fullest and most complete information regarding the affairs of government as is compatible with the conduct of governmental business.” In light of that policy, it seems clear that a governmental body’s records should provide the public with a reasonably intelligible description of the essential substantive elements of every motion made, who initiated and seconded the motion, the outcome of any vote on the motion, and, if a roll-call vote, how each member voted.
Nothing in the open meetings law prohibits a body from making decisions by general consent, without a formal vote, but such informal procedures are typically only appropriate for routine procedural matters such as approving the minutes of prior meetings or adjourning. In any event, regardless of whether a decision is made by consensus or by some other method, Wis. Stat. § 19.88(3) still requires the body to create and preserve a meaningful record of that decision. “Consent agendas,” whereby a body discusses individual items of business under separate agenda headings, but takes action on all discussed items by adopting a single motion to approve all the items previously discussed, are likely insufficient to satisfy the recordkeeping requirements of Wis. Stat. § 19.88(3).
Wisconsin Stat. § 19.88(3) also provides that meeting records created under that statute—whether for an open or a closed session—must be open to public inspection to the extent prescribed in the state public records law. Because the records law contains no general exemption for records created during a closed session, a custodian must release such items unless the particular record at issue is subject to a specific statutory exemption or the custodian concludes that the harm to the public from its release would outweigh the benefit to the public. There is a strong presumption under the public records law that release of records is in the public interest. As long as the reasons for convening in closed session continue to exist, however, the custodian may be able to justify not disclosing any information that requires confidentiality. But the custodian still must separate information that can be made public from that which cannot and must disclose the former, even if the latter can be withheld. In addition, once the underlying purpose for the closed session ceases to exist, all records of the session must then be provided to any person requesting them.
NO RESPONSE FROM ELECTED OFFICIALS
It hasn’t been that long, and I posted it right before the superbowl, so I’m not complaining they haven’t answered yet. But my guess is they won’t answer at all – either under misunderstanding of the law, or embarrassment.
TO BE CLEAR. Elected officials hide behind the open meetings laws when they don’t want to answer. Answering the question “Where are the minutes” isn’t a policy decision that is coming before the board, its a factual answer. If all 5 of them answered the question, they wouldn’t be violating any laws. However, if they started discussing a new policy about how to post the minutes that would come before the board at some point, then they would be potentially creating a walking quorum, particularly if they all agreed on an outcome at the end of the conversation. But simply answering a factual question if no violation of the open meetings laws. They could simply post a link or tell me a staff person to ask or say “I don’t know”
WHERE IS THE MEDIA ON THIS?
Cap Times? State Journal? Other print journalists? Television? Radio? Have you not noticed something is amiss. The Cap Times and State Journal faithfully cover the School Board, the Cap Times has a school related article 5 – 7 times a week. Why don’t you press them on their complete lack of transparency? When you don’t, it normalizes the behavior of the staff and elected officials and the public just accepts that nothing is wrong here. Something is definitely wrong here.
WHERE ARE OUR SCHOOL BOARD MEMBERS ON THIS?
Sigh . . . our school board president needs to take responsibility for this and fix it. Or members of the school board need to take this on as an issue and fix it. This is unacceptable.
There is a lot of concern of how the Baraboo school board is not handling things lately. Especially at JYMS. Lack of discipline and too many disrupting kids that the teachers are unable to “control”, either by the lack of tools needed or uninvolved parents. After learning of how organized they are with the minutes and how disrespectful the board has been with our retired teacher, who are pillars in this community, I hope change for the better comes soon. Our children deserve it.