Clayton defends closed meeting
County school board chairman says session was legal; others say it violated state Open Meetings Act.

By Megan Matteucci
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 04/16/08

The Clayton County school board broke the law when it met behind closed doors for two hours Monday night with accreditation officials, an attorney for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution said.

Clayton board chairman Eddie White said he believes the session was legal. The board conducted a private self-evaluation with officials from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and two state Board of Education members, White said.

"In any good organization such as ours, you have to have a board evaluation to see where you are. We talked about how we can be better individuals, how we can be better as a board," said White, who was elected board chairman Monday. "It is not unusual that boards will do this. ... That was not appropriate for the masses."

But parents, the director of the Georgia First Amendment Foundation and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's attorney said the board should have held its discussion in front of the 200 residents in attendance.

"There is no board self-evaluation exception in the Open Meetings Act. The 'masses' had a legal right to be present at the meeting," said Thomas Clyde, an attorney for the Journal-Constitution.

On Tuesday, Clyde sent a letter on behalf of the Journal-Constitution to the board's attorneys stating that Monday night's closed session was illegal. Clyde also asked for an affidavit signed by the board chairman swearing that the private discussion fell within the law.

Board attorney Dorsey Hopson and the district's SACS lawyer Glenn Brock, who attended the closed session, did not return three messages each Tuesday.

Georgia law allows elected officials to discuss litigation, real estate transactions and personnel issues, including appointments, employment, compensation, hiring, disciplinary action or dismissal, privately. The law allows officials to do periodic evaluation or rating of employees in closed session, but not of elected officials, Clyde said.

"None of those events occurred Monday," Clyde said. "Moreover, even if the personnel exception applied, the board would still be required to receive information from SACS or the governor's liaisons in public. Only after that occurred would they be allowed to deliberate in closed session."

Mark A. Elgart, SACS' president and chief executive officer, said school boards routinely conduct board evaluations in closed sessions. When requested, SACS officials participate in those sessions for accredited school systems, Elgart said.

"That's not the law in Georgia," Clyde said. "If Mr. Elgart has things to say to the school board, he is required to say them in public. The community has too much at stake for this to be behind closed doors."

Hollie Manheimer, executive director of the Georgia First Amendment Foundation, said meetings should only be closed in rare instances.

"The Open Meetings Act exists to give the public knowledge on situations just like the one that is taking place with the Clayton County school board," she said. "It's fair to say that when a third party joins a quorum of board members in a closed session, it very well may waive the permissibility of a closed session."

SACS gave the Clayton school district until Sept. 1 to meet nine mandates or be the first district in the nation to lose accreditation since 1969. Among the accreditation violations were apparent open meeting violations, SACS said.

The first mandate is to establish a capable board. The district's advisers, including two state Board of Education members appointed by the governor to help Clayton, have urged all nine board members to resign to meet this mandate.

The governor's liaisons, James E. Bostic Jr. and William "Brad" Bryant, said they did not discuss accreditation in the closed-door session.

"Mr. Bryant and Dr. Bostic simply reaffirmed in writing to the board that they should resign in order to fulfill the first mandate from the SACS report. They did not discuss this recommendation in executive session and the board's attorney was very careful about what was discussed," said Dana Tofig, spokesman for the state Board of Education.

Former school board member Norreese Haynes, removed for allegedly not living in the county, said the board has a history of violating open meetings law.

"Periodically, the board would talk about things in executive session that needed to be in the public," Haynes said Tuesday. "I was a witness to that and would tell them it wasn't right."

Jessie Goree, who has a son in the 11th grade at North Clayton High School, attended the 6 1/2-hour meeting Monday only to find she was barred from more than half of it.

"I'd like to know where we are with SACS. No one knows what's going on," Goree said. "We wanted an opportunity to talk with Elgart and the governor's liaisons. But they said everything they had to say without the public there."

Goree left the meeting shortly before 11 p.m., just as the board was coming out of its second closed session for the night.

"I got tired of waiting," she said.

The board is scheduled to meet again tonight behind closed doors to discuss personnel matters, White said.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's attorney has requested a written explanation.