You may remember my post about when I asked the board to adjourn the 3/20 meeting. Following is the legal action I’ve taken since that time, and the result.

On March 21st, I filed an Open Meetings Act Request for Review with the Illinois Attorney General Office, Public Access Bureau. Following is the entirety of my request:

In summary, I note the issues I observed on 2/6/19, 3/1/19 culminating in my request for the board to adjourn on 3/20 and their disregard for the OMA. I requested a ruling that all final action taken be invalidated and require the school district to comply with the Open Meetings Act.

On April 4th, the Public Access Bureau responded with the following letter asking for the Heyworth School District’s response regarding my allegations.

On April 25th, the District responded via the Attorney. In summary, the District does not deny the facts or the violation occurred, but alleges that circumstances outside their control caused the violation, something the law has an exception for. The

On May 1st, I responded in detail. I feel the Districts response even further proved that my allegations where in fact correct and valid. The exception is for the 48 hour continuous rule, not for failing to post them at all. The law does not contain an exception for that, and I feel that the Districts response made it clear they specifically intended to violate the law. I end with the allegation that the violation was willful, and not due to actions outside of the District’s control.

There was no action taken by the Public Access Bureau until Dec 4th when I received the following letter.

Summary paragraph: “Although it appears that personnel and technical difficulties interfered with the District’s ability to post the notice on its website, there is no indication that the District staff attempted to place the agenda in a physical location such as in a window or on a door for continuous viewing as required by OMA. The decision not to do so was within the District and the Board’ s control. Because it is undisputed that the agenda for the Board’ s March 20, 2019, meeting was not posted in a location available to the public during the entire 48- hour period preceding the meeting. this office concludes that the Board violated OMA. While it does not appear practical at this point for the Board to remedy this violation by reconsidering and re-voting on all final actions taken at the meeting, this office requests that the Board reconsider and revote on the agenda items for ” Curriculum Adoption Cycle” 2 and ” Changes to Board Policies” 3 after providing proper advance notice for those actions. If it has not already done so, the Board
should take steps to ensure that notices of and agendas for all future meetings are posted in a place where they are continuously available for public review 48 hours in advance of its meetings.”

And so concludes the process of an OMA Request for Review.