Warsaw School Board Votes Violate Open Door LawBy meeting and voting on the teachers’ master contract via teleconference at noon Thursday, the Warsaw School Board violated Indiana Open Door Law.
The violation means that the vote does not count, making the board miss its midnight Thursday deadline, according to the Indiana public access counselor.
But the school corporation and its attorney feel differently, saying that because board policy bylaws allows teleconferencing action, it’s following Indiana code.
Indiana Public Access Counselor Luke Britt said there were “no exceptions” for school boards to vote by phone and to say otherwise would be “dead wrong.”
“Voting members have to be physically present if their vote is to count,” he said.
He said the Open Door Law is “black and white” on the matter.
When Superintendent Dr. David Hoffert learned Britt considered the meeting an Open Door Law violation, an emergency meeting was scheduled for 6 p.m. Thursday with four of the board’s seven members to approve the contract again.
But Britt said Thursday the board couldn’t hold an emergency meeting on the contract Thursday because it didn’t qualify as an emergency.
In addtion, by state law a notice must be posted 48 hours in advance of a public meeting, so the second meeting was also in violation of open door laws.
Warsaw School Board bylaws state, “All board members must be physically present in order to have their vote officially recorded, unless the following procedure is employed. In order to have their vote officially recorded, each board member must either be physically present or participate in the meeting by using a means of communication that permits all other members participating in the meeting and all members of the public present at the place where the meeting is being conducted to communicate simultaneously with each other during the meeting. A member who participates as described above is considered to be present at the meeting.”
It cites Indiana Code 5-10.2-2-16 and 5-14-1.5.
Indiana Code 5-14-1.15-3.5 states that “a member of the governing body of a public agency who is not physically present at a meeting of the governing body but who communicates with members of the governing body during the meeting by telephone, computer, video conferencing or any other electronic means of communication may not participate in final action taken at the meeting unless the member’s participation is expressly authorized by statute and may not be considered to be present at the meeting unless considering the member to be present at the meeting is expressly authorized by statute.”
Indiana Code 5-14-1.5-3.6 does provide for electronic meetings of state agencies and charter schools, but Britt said that to say that includes school boards would be a misinterpretation of the law.
The state deadline for teachers’ master contracts to be approved was midnight Thursday. Britt said the board “missed its deadline.”
Britt said if someone took the legality of the telephone vote to trial court, it was his view that they would win and the school board’s vote would be overturned.
In response, Hoffert said the school corporation had checked into voting over the phone a few years ago. Their legal counsel, Timothy S. Shelly, of Warrick & Boyn LLP, Elkhart, said then it was legal as long as it was written in board policy. Hoffert said it was a rarely used procedure.
The teachers’ master contract was approved by the Warsaw Community Education Association Wednesday.
Master Contract
During the special meeting at noon Thursday, all seven members of the school board called in to Hoffert’s office. The only item on the agenda was the teachers’ master contract. In a roll call, each member acknowledged they were on the line and that they could hear the other callers.
Hoffert said if the board approved the contract Thursday, it would be uploaded to Gateway, which is where the state requires schools post their teachers’ master contracts. That had to be done by midnight.
All seven members voted in favor of the contract.
Hoffert said for 2018-19, the contract will be $600 on the base and a $400 stipend for every certified teacher – 2.1 percent increase. The amount would be retroactive to this year, he said.
A check will be given to certified teachers sometime in December.
Teachers also will be receiving a Teacher Appreciation Grant from the state of Indiana. By law that has to be deposited by Dec. 5 so the school corporation will look at doing a special payout for teachers.
Traditionally the amount is $350 to $450, Hoffert said.
Declining enrollment has had an impact on how much teachers are paid.
Hoffert said WCS has fewer students this year. “Each one of our students is worth roughly about $5,600 in tuition dollars from the state of Indiana. ... That was something we really had to take in deep planning and consideration”
He said specific efficiencies throughout the school corporation had to be looked at “and there were many that were made outside of the classroom, because we tried to make sure we protected the classroom structure integrity inside of those cuts to be able to open up any dollars for raises.”
Hoffert said it has taken some creative budgeting and planning by the board to be able to put the dollars into effect because it realizes how important that is.
Reichenbach asked to be reminded what the average amount per student was given by the state. Hoffert said for WCS it was $5,600 per student but the average for the state was closer to $6,000.
“So we’re about $400 less than the state average per student,” she said.
Hoffert said that was correct, and with an estimate student enrollment around 7,000, that “is a rather sizeable difference.” It’s about $2.8 million.
After the meeting, Hoffert said the state only allowed for teacher contract negotiations to begin Sept. 15 and had to end Nov. 15.
He said, “We’d like the state to consider a sizeable increase for education funding.”
