1% For Teachers & 6% For the Superintendent (UPDATED)

  Superintendent Withers received a 5% 6% Increase  I am updating this posting. I initially stated that the Superintendent received a 5% increase. I was alerted to the fact that he also received the 1% COLA increase awarded to the employees. That puts his increase at 6%. In last night’s School Board meeting, I made a motion to amend the proposed budget: I proposed a 3% Cost of Living Increase for the employees of the District … Continue reading

We Had a Circus of a School Board Meeting On Tuesday (Audio)

BOARD VICE PRESIDENT HEATHER BENNETT is conducting the meeting and admits that the Board has been violating Utah’s Open meeting Act. BM 040913 MIN0305           Audio starts at about time index 1:20 This recording is the April 9, 2013, School Board Meeting discussing the March 5, 2013, Minute Meetings. The Part of the minutes that we are talking about is what was captured in the 03-05-13 meeting: I am asking that Policy … Continue reading

BSA Equal Access Act (Complaint Letter)

PDF Link of Entire Letter     TEXT OF LETTER: 26 March 2013 DELIVERED VIA CERTIFIED MAIL: 7011 2970 0000 0196 3228 Mr. J. Aaron Romine, Regional Director U.S. Department of Education, Office For Civil Rights Cesar E. Chavez Memorial Building 1244 Speer Boulevard, Suite 310 Denver, CO 80204-3582   Re: Boy Scouts of America Equal Access Act  Dear Mr. Romine, I was recently elected to serve on the Salt Lake City Board of Education. … Continue reading

School Board Violating the Open And Public Meetings Act (Video)

At the March 5th, 2013, School Board Meeting about an 1 hour and 42 minutes into the meeting the board president brought up the minutes for our January 8, 2013 meeting. I had initially asked for a minor change and to have my “Point of Order” letter included as part of the minutes. Instead of doing so in our February 5th meeting the board president pulled them from the agenda and we did not act on them. I had made the request a total of six times via email, letter or in person.

Above is a picture of B-2 School Board Meetings Administrative Procedures. It states the following:

5. Recordings and Minutes for Board Meetings:

a. Written minutes and recording will include:

• he date, time and place of the meeting;

• the names of the members present and absent;

• the substance of all actions taken;

• the names of all citizens who appeared and a brief summary of their testimony; and

• any other information that any member requests be entered in the recording and minutes.

The underlined part is what I quote in the meeting. This language comes right out of the Utah Code 52-4-203.   Written minutes of open meetings — Public records — Recording of meetings.

Yet this stumps the School Board President and other members of the school board and now we are going to expend our neighbor’s tax dollars and have an attorney come in and explain it to us.

What am I missing?? I have been on the Board for two months, serving with people who have been on the board for a decade and this is the first time this has come up?

They did not invite the attorney at the next meeting as was agreed. The following month they did however, concede that they were not following the open meetings act: Link to Blog Posting