Weymouth School Committee Violated Open Meeting Law: AG's Office

WEYMOUTH, MA — The Attorney General's office has determined that the Weymouth School Committee violated the Open Meeting Law when it posted an insufficiently detailed agenda for its April 27 meeting.

Last week, Assistant Attorney General KerryAnne Kilcoyne notified the town of the violation. The office received the complaint from Elizabeth Foster-Nolan on Aug. 2.

Two days prior to the April 27 meeting, the committee posted an agenda which included an item titled "Job Descriptions (Action Requested)." Around 11:30 a.m. on the day of the meeting, a revised agenda was posted with the inclusion of "Curriculum Directors, Assistant Curriculum Directors" after "Job Descriptions."

At their meeting, the committee discussed the need and salary for curriculum and assistant curriculum directors. When one committee member noted that a discussion of job descriptions for the positions was not included on the notice, Weymouth School Superintendent Jennifer Curtis-Whipple and Chairperson Lisa Belmarsh said the descriptions were available online prior to the meeting.

The AG's office found that the notice was insufficient.

"Even though the revised notice identified the "Curriculum Directors, Assistant Curriculum Directors," the Committee knew on April 25, when the notice was originally posted, that it would be discussing those specific positions during the meeting. Both the School Superintendent and Committee Chair stated that the job descriptions had been known and available to the Committee for at least a week. Therefore, the Committee's failure to include reference to the two specific job descriptions in its original notice violated the Open Meeting Law," Kilcoyne wrote in her decision.

The school committee was ordered to comply with the law and was warned that further violations could be considered evidence of intent to violate the law.

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