Faculty in the News
In the News
Some Wichita parents upset with school board over boundary process
Publication date: Feb. 14, 2012
Source: The Wichita Eagle
Author: Suzanne Perez Tobias
***
The Wichita Eagle's story on parents frustrated with the Wichita school board's lack of transparency quoted Mike Kautsch, professor of law.
The Wichita Eagle wrote:
The Kansas Open Meetings Act defines a meeting as a gathering that includes a majority of the governing body. For the Wichita school board, that would mean four of its seven members.
The law does, however, prevent a governing body from using serial communication – meetings, phone calls or e-mails “intended by any or all of the participants to reach agreement on a matter that would require binding action to be taken by the body.”
Mike Kautsch, a University of Kansas media law professor, said he could not speak to the specifics of the school board’s recent actions. But there is "a high risk in not being transparent" even when elected officials follow the letter of the law, he said.
"The purpose of the Open Meetings Act is to make sure the public has an opportunity to observe discussion and decision-making," Kautsch said. "If members … arrange to meet in a way that the public cannot observe, there’s at least a danger that the public will perceive secrecy was present. And as a consequence, the public will not understand the basis of the binding vote and won’t have confidence in it."