Questions over the adequacy of meeting minutes kept by the Fayette County Board of Education arose in a May 23 letter to board members from Georgia First Amendment Foundation (FAF).

Superintendent John DeCotis responded June 3, saying he believed board minutes were adequate.

Yet two board members maintain they were unaware of the correspondence until after DeCotis’ response had been issued, while another said such communication methodology is customary and appropriate.

In the May 23 letter, FAF Executive Director Hollie Manheimer said her organization had been informed that the school board did not prepare adequate minutes of its meetings and asked for an explanation.

Contacted July 8, Manheimer said the letter of inquiry was sent on the basis of a citizen complaint. She said the May 23 letter initiated an investigation that is currently open. Manheimer said that letters of inquiry are customary procedures based on the thousands of complaints received each year. FAF had not reviewed the board meeting minutes prior to sending the letter.

In his June 3 response, DeCotis indicated that he was “not clear as to how you specifically contend the minutes of the Fayette County Board of Education are inadequate.”

DeCotis said the minutes do contain the names of all members present, a description of each motion or proposal made, a record of all votes and copies of any documents necessary to explain the action taken by the board.

DeCotis said the form used for meeting minutes is being reviewed by the school board attorney. DeCotis also asked for specific examples of alleged inadequate information referenced in the First Amendment Foundation letter.

A June 9 letter from school board member Dr. Bob Todd to DeCotis and Chairman Terri Smith, and copied to the remaining board members, asked several questions about the FAF letter and DeCotis’ response.

“I see that the letter was not addressed to Mrs. Smith but to all members of the board. I am curious, but not surprised, as to why neither of you informed me of the letter or asked for my reaction prior to sharing it with the attorney or giving a response,” Todd wrote.

“The attorney saw the letter and how it was addressed. He also did not ask about individual board members’ reactions since I was not contacted,” Todd said.

“We have been busy reducing policies and radically altering what minutes are kept as an official record,” Todd continued. “Asking for attorney input without total board review and input creates the perception that we have something to hide. All of this further erodes public trust and confidence in this board and administration. It is evident we are moving in a direction that is in opposition to what the public and media expect and are demanding.”

In a June 19 letter to Todd, DeCotis said the omission was not intentional and that the FAF letter had been addressed to Smith. DeCotis said Smith had asked him to respond “since our minutes meet the letter of the law.”

“Additionally, it was our first indication that anyone had concerns with our minutes,” DeCotis said. “Also, your letter is the first indication we had that you had questions or concerns with the minutes. As board members, I thought it was standard procedure that when there are concerns with issues that you are willing to discuss them with each other.”

DeCotis in the June 19 letter also addressed several questions asked by Todd.

DeCotis said the meeting minute format had been changed at a January 2004 work session based on the recommendation of auditors and the school board attorney, who felt the minutes were too wordy and could be made more concise.

DeCotis added that it was timely and costly to retype the total verbal transcript.

"Many people have come by to look at the minutes and many have said that they are pleased that the minutes are not long to read and are easy to understand,” DeCotis said in response to Todd’s question as to whether the public had been given the opportunity to respond to the change. “Additionally, with the backup information it makes it easy to comprehend what went on at the meeting. After reading minutes no one has asked to listen to the tapes.”

Board member Janet Smola Monday night said she also received a copy of the letters after they had been sent, saying that the routing of such communication was customary.

“It didn’t strike me as unusual at all. It is not unusual for general information to be directed to the superintendent and the chair, including things that are addressed to the board,” Smola said. “Anything that came in during the previous week is passed on to us together as a board update. What is particularly unusual about this is that we have never received any kind of question about the taking of minutes. And we also have a verbatim audio tape for anyone that wants to hear it. I had never concerned myself that the minutes that were being recorded weren’t absolutely the way they should be, nor did Bob Todd ever bring up to any of us that he felt differently.”

Commenting on the First Amendment Foundation letter, board member Marion Key said she did not receive a copy of the May 23 letter until after the response by DeCotis had been made. Key said if FAF believes school board minutes are not as they should be, the board needs to have a public discussion and come to a consensus on how to make them more thorough.

Key said her preference would be for minutes to provide a brief synopsis of the measures being considered by the board, the names of members voting for or against a motion and their rationale.

Key added that she would like to see a way for ongoing issues not decided on at one meeting to be disseminated to the public.

In a related issue, the “Board Meetings Recaps” section on the school system website has been replaced with “Board Meeting Minutes.” The school system began implementing the EBoard program in January supplied by Georgia School Board Association (GSBA).

Frequent users of the site might have to hit the refresh button to change the setting from board recaps to board minutes. Supporting documents referenced in the meeting minutes, sometimes amounting to hundreds of pages per meeting, are kept at the school board office. Supporting documents are also provided on-line under the “Meeting Agendas” section of the school board website.