Parents are right when they say the Scintilla Board of Education must conduct its business in an open and transparent manner.

The charter school is a public school and as a public board of education, the BOE must comply with the Georgia Open Meetings Act and Open Records Act. 

There are only three exceptions to the Sunshine Law regarding the deliberations of the school board. 

Scintilla board members can go behind closed doors to discuss:

• Real estate transactions;

• Personnel issues; and

• Actual or pending litigation. 

All policy discussions must happen out in the open. 

When they do go behind closed doors into executive session, they must be very circumspect to limit the conversations that take place.

Going beyond the three narrow exceptions is a violation of state law and a violation of the public trust. 

The Georgia General Assembly has said the three exceptions must be interpreted narrowly. 

That means not all personnel issues can be discussed in executive session. They can only talk about those things that involve a specific individual — not overall staffing issues — and they cannot receive any evidence in closed-door meetings related to a personnel issue. 

They cannot talk about the possibility of being sued or have discussions with their attorney unrelated to a lawsuit that has actually been filed or a letter of intent to file a lawsuit. 

Real estate deliberations in executive session cannot include overall plans for land acquisitions, construction, etc., but must be limited to specific discussions about the terms of a sale or lease of property. 

Before the BOE can go into a closed meeting, it must first meet in an open public meeting, following a public notice, then vote to go into executive session. After the closed meeting concludes, the board must reconvene in an open meeting. 

No binding votes can be taken in executive session. 

When the board votes to take action on anything that had been discussed behind closed doors, the motion must be clear enough and complete enough that the public can know exactly what a “yes” vote or a “no” vote means. 

We commend the Scintilla BOE for allowing parents to speak, and address their concerns, at its board meeting last week.