Request By:
Mr. Paul Sebastian, Secretary
Carroll County Board of Education
Carrollton, Kentucky 41008
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Robert L. Chenoweth, Assistant Attorney General
As the Secretary for the Carroll County Board of Education, you have asked the Office of the Attorney General for an opinion on the following two questions.
1. If a Special Session of a school board is called for a specific purpose by an official motion of a member, seconded by a member, and passed by a majority of the board, does the motion become the agenda? Can anything be added or deleted?
2. Can a school board member be classified as personnel in order to request a closed session of the board under the "Sunshine Law?"
We will answer your questions in the order presented.
KRS 160.270 governs meetings, regular and special, of a local board of education. Please note that a special meeting may be called either by the chairman or on request of three members of the board. Once the special meeting has been called the statute requires that each member of the board "shall have timely notice of each (special) meeting and the nature, object and purpose for which it is called." This latter referred to requirement is for providing the school board members with an agenda of the matters to be taken up at the special meeting.
We believe in light of the above that if a motion for a special meeting is made and that motion passes by at least three members of the board, the subject matter of the motion would reflect what the agenda must cover, that is, the "nature, object and purpose" of the called special meeting. No other matter other than that for which the meeting was called may be discussed at that meeting.
The exceptions to the Kentucky open meeting law are spelled out in KRS 61.810. One of those exceptions pertains to specific discussions or hearing "which might lead to the appointment, discipline or dismissal of an individual employe, member or student * * *." KRS 61.810(6). This office in OAG 76-4, copy attached, concluded that in filling a vacancy, an appointment capacity of the board, the board is in effect electing a state officer. That opinion further concluded that the provisions of the open meetings law dealing with exceptions permitting closed meetings do not include filling a vacancy and that this activity should be in an open meeting.
Since a board of education has no authority to investigate or discipline or dismiss one of its members, see OAG 76-491, copy attached, we see no basis upon which a school board could go into closed session relative to one of its own members.