Neoga School District – AG Confirms Open Meetings Act violation.

Cumberland Co. (ECWd) –

In January of 2016, we attended the Neoga School District Board meeting to expose the fact the Board had violated the Open Meetings Act by failing to properly post the agenda for the meeting.  The article which includes my public comment at that meeting can be viewed at this link. After much contention and pushback from supporters of the school board, numerous folks took to Facebook claiming the School Administration had assured them there was no Open Meetings Act violation.

Once again, the Attorney General Public Access Counselor (PAC) has issued their opinion confirming they did, in fact, violate the Open Meetings act as it relates to posting of the meeting in question as well as failing to have posted their annual meeting dates, just as we claimed.

“For the reasons that follow, the Public Access Bureau concludes that the Board of Education ( Board) of Neoga Community Unit School District No. 3( District) violated the requirements of OMA in connection with posting notice of its January 20, 2016, meeting on its website and posting an annual schedule of its regular
meetings,”

Can anyone explain why we are able to comprehend and apply the law related to Open Meetings Act obligations yet School Administrators drawing healthy taxpayer funded paychecks continue to get it wrong?  Not only is this an Administrator problem, I think it’s safe to assume the mandated training for School Board members is clearly not working.

Thanks for the PAC’s response to this request for review……….20 months later!

To those who claimed the School Superintendent told you there was no violation, let this be a lesson not to be so quick to believe what public officials tell you when they are being accused of wrong doing, as this once again proves any such claim to be false.

You can download the opinion at this link or view below.

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