The State Attorney General has found that the Tucson Unified School District Board violated an open meeting law, according a Facebook post from board member Mark Stegeman.
Stegeman posted the following:
In response to a complaint that Michael Hicks and I filed in December, the Attorney General’s office yesterday sent a letter to TUSD advising that the board violated the Open Meeting Law by holding the discussion of the superintendent’s goals in Executive Session. As a remedy, the AG requests that the board read the relevant parts of the letter into the record at a board meeting, accept the findings by a public vote, make the entire letter available to the public, and conduct a public training on the OML within 90 days.
Board member Michael Hicks provided KGUN9 with the following response:
The decision that superintendent goals cannot be crafted and discussed in executive session changes this practice across the State of Arizona. Our General Counsel is currently in communication with ASBA and the AG’s Office to ensure all are aware of the wide-spread implications of the decision by the AG’s Office. If the opinion stands as written, all future Arizona superintendents will have to craft their goals with the Board fully in public or through an attorney in executive session.
TUSD Board member Mark Stegeman provided KGUN9 with the following response:
District leadership has been careless about the Open Meeting Law and this is a wake up call. The required training is an excellent idea.
