Public information advocate: Vote to close Little Milligan against the law
BUTLER, Tenn. (WJHL) — An advocate for public information said the Carter County school board’s vote to close Little Milligan Elementary School is against state law.
The school board held a special called meeting Thursday evening to discuss and vote on the budget for the next year.
April-25th-Special-Called-Meeting-AGENDA.docxDownload
One board member asked their attorney, Scott Bennet, “Are we legal to have a vote on closing a school, working on the budget tonight?”.
Bennett replied, “Yes.”
Plenty of parents and community members felt blindsided by the school board’s decision to close the school at the end of this year.
“It’s not that this is a wrong issue for the school board to consider,” said executive director of Tennessee Coalition for Open Government, Deborah Fisher. “What’s wrong is they tried to do it in secret.”
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Tennessee Coalition for Open Government advocates for the access, protection, and preservation of public information and open government. Fisher looked at the agenda for the special called meeting and found issues.
Fisher said agendas for special called meetings are supposed to reasonably describe the actions taken.
“So, if there’s a vote to close a school, the agenda doesn’t say that,” Fisher said. “And it would be hard for anyone to even infer that the adoption of a budget is about closing a school.”
At the meeting Thursday, board members told Bennett people were mad about the motion to close the school, and said, “A lot of them didn’t know anything about it until rumors this week.”
Bennett replied, “Could you have had more notice? Well possibly. But you certainly had some notice.”
Bennett argued that the agenda provided adequate notice.
“When the board is voting on the budget, anything that is within the budget, that is within the board’s spending power, is fair game,” said Bennett.
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Fisher disagreed.
“If the meeting is going to be hiding controversial items that are going to be voted on, that would be in direct contravention of the Open Meetings Act,” said Fisher.
The Tennessee Open Meetings Act grants the public the right to attend and observe public meetings.
Fisher said prior court cases have ruled in favor of providing more information. Legal action is possible in this case.
“But, probably the right thing for the school board to do is to hold another meeting, and themselves nullify what happened, and redo it this time in the sunshine,” Fisher said.
News Channel 11 reached out to school board members, the school superintendent, and Scott Bennett, but have not heard back.
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