Hear ye! Hear ye! The Court of Public Opinion is now in session - and you are presiding.
While only a court of law can declare that an action is "illegal", residents of the Quite Commonly Secret District don't need a black robe and gavel to understand this case. Our school board has again resorted to "illegal" private discussions, which prevent the community from seeing how they focus on polishing their public image rather than educating our children.
The Pennsylvania Sunshine Act begins "The General Assembly finds that the right of the public to be present at all meetings of agencies and to witness the deliberation, policy formulation and decision making of agencies is vital to the enhancement and proper functioning of the democratic process and that secrecy in public affairs undermines the faith of the public in government and the public's effectiveness in fulfilling its role in a democratic society".
Accordingly, agencies like QCSD may hold private "executive sessions" only to discuss a very limited number of very specific topics. Not included are criticizing the media, and planning how to keep negative information from the public. But that hasn't stopped our board. They held a private "Conference" on November 20 and, although the Sunshine Act clearly states "Deliberation of agency business may not occur at a conference", they spent one full hour, 25 percent of their time together, debating what this column reveals about them to the community.
Several directors called the column one-sided, and wanted a strategy to influence the media. Other disagreed, pointing out that it only balances the dozens of everything-is-wonderful columns, and letters, written by former Superintendent Jim Scanlon, former Interim Super David Landis, former Assistant Super Jim Newcomer, President Kelly Van Valkenburgh, former President Phil Abramson (and his wife), Business Manager Sylvia Lenz, former Director for Assessment Debra Kopp, and board members Bob Leight (and his son, and his wife), Kathy Mosley, Nancy Tirjan, Linda Martin, and staffers Bridget O'Connell, Anita Serge, Mary Bogle, Mary Ann Byatt, Audrey Waddell, and Richard Zinck, plus the district's website and press releases.
Melissa Melewsky, the Media Law counsel for the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association, who regularly deals with Sunshine Act issues, explained "There is no executive session exception that allows an agency to discuss media coverage of agency business, or its accuracy. I do not think an agency should be discussing media policy during an executive session". In fact, state law actually calls for fining participants in any "illegal" discussions.
And the board's shenanigans don't stop there. At their December 3 meeting, Van Valkenburgh claimed that she had announced the Conference at the November 8 meeting. When Director Paul Stepanoff pointed out that it wasn't in the minutes as required by law, and attempted to bring up the Sunshine Act violations, Van Valkenburgh cut him off. There was no public disclosure of anything.
If it wasn't for journalists who dig beyond the district's tsunami of propaganda, you might actually believe that everything is wonderful. There is no official mention of problems with test scores, grade manipulation, election law violations, ethics issues, hidden survey results, Integrated Math, budget slush funds, uncontrolled spending, expensive midnight teacher contracts, or unnecessary tax increases. Or Sunshine Act violations.
The district's see-no-evil attitude even extends to censoring the information in their official files. The package of materials members receive prior to each meeting includes every news article mentioning QCSD, including all opinion pieces and letters to the editor, except - guess who? Yet Mosley, in what she described as "extending an olive branch" to me, wrote "Diverse opinions, including yours, assist us in arriving at better decisions because we are moved to look at issues from multiple perspectives". Can you say hypocrisy? Apparently "diverse opinions" are recognized only if they kiss the board's mistletoe.
The Conference is only the latest "illegal" discussion focusing on those who dare oppose the majority's viewpoint. There is no Sunshine Act exception for criticizing fellow elected officials, but at the October 25 executive session, Mosley improperly, and inaccurately, accused Stepanoff of leaking details of the union negotiations. Last January 30, the majority called a private session to criticize Stepanoff for sending an email to Acting Superintendent Landis which (accurately) warned that the objectivity of the math task force had been compromised.
And the district's own website confirms that QCSD, like many other state agencies, has disregarded the Act for years. According to Pennsylvania's Commonwealth Court, "The reason given (for a private meeting) must be meaningful. It must be more than some generalized term which in reality tells the public nothing. To simply say 'personnel matters' tells nothing. The reason stated must be of sufficient specificity to inform those present that there is, in reality, a specific, discrete matter or area which the board had determined should be discussed in executive session. To permit generalized fluff would frustrate the very purpose of the Act."
But in 2005 and 2006, the board held 29 executive sessions - every one violating those requirements: Fifteen gave the reason as simply "personnel". Six were labeled "legal matter". One "negotiation". One "real estate". There was no reason at all given for six! This column exposed the wrongdoing in February, 2007, but half of the 18 announcements this year were still inadequate. We have absolutely no record of what occurred in at least 38 board meetings at a time when teacher salaries, tax increases, budgets, surveys, Integrated Math, and ethics were controversial topics.
To fully understand how well your tax dollars are being spent, and your children educated, the community must be able to weigh all sides of any issue, not just the official versions put out by the district cheerleaders. Unfortunately, without the media, you would never even hear any another side. And, of course, all of the time that the board invests in image polishing is that much less time spent on their stated mission of education.
Your Honor, the defense asks that we adjourn until next week, when I will present evidence of QCSD's best news in years - even if does not please the board majority.