BRENHAM SCHOOL BOARD DISCUSSES TRANSPARENCY
Transparency and how Brenham School Board meetings are conducted were discussed at length during Monday’s gathering of trustees.
(right), pictured along with Trustee Tommie Sullivan,
gives a presentation during Monday night's board
meeting about Brenham ISD's efforts to maintain
transparency.
Board President Natalie Lange reviewed what is permitted and disallowed by the Texas Open Meetings Act and how that shapes what meeting agendas look like and what business can be debated. She also went over the ways the school district has improved and looks to continue to improve in being open to the community.
Lange said the district’s past efforts include moving regular board meetings from the central office to the high school and regularly streaming meetings online on its YouTube channel. Currently, it is working on adding a transparency page to the district website for the public to find required documentation.
Lange said as a governing body, the board must abide by laws that admittedly can make meetings feel rigid at times, with trustees being unable to engage directly with attendees unless the matter at hand is on the agenda. She stated that she herself was irked by those rules when she was a regular citizen attending meetings.
Going over specific requirements in the Open Meetings Act, Lange said only up to three trustees are allowed to meet in a public forum to discuss school business before the gathering has to be posted as a called meeting. Agendas must provide specific notice of the items to be discussed, and items that are described too generally may violate the act. She cited this as the reason why an agenda item titled along the lines of “new business” cannot be used, as it does not inform the public of the subject matter. Per board policy, any trustee can request an item to be added to the agenda as long as the subject is lawful and requested in a timely manner so that the public knows it will be discussed.
Trustee Jared Krenek commented that at a recent Texas Association of School Boards (TASB) conference about the Open Meetings Act, he was very surprised at how many school districts do not allow public comment at meetings aside from what is explicitly listed on an agenda. He believes Brenham ISD is much less restrictive in comparison.
At the end of discussion, trustees moved into a separate item regarding board operating procedures and the code of ethics. Lange asked the board to review them for any possible updates that need to be made, stating that some will be needed due to changes in the law. Any adjustments will be brought back in a future meeting or workshop.
Click here to view Lange's presentation at Monday's school board meeting.