Old Rochester subcommittee violates Open Meeting Law

MATTAPOISETT — On a Tuesday in March 2021, the Old Rochester Regional School District Equity Subcommittee held a two-hour long public meeting. The meeting minutes – the formal record of the committee’s activities – spanned 63 words.

The Massachusetts Office of the Attorney General found those minutes and several others produced by the subcommittee between Oct. 5, 2020 and June 21, 2022 violated Open Meeting Law by lacking sufficiently detailed summaries of discussions during those meetings.

The violations were outlined in a June 6 letter signed by Assistant Attorney General Carrie Benedon and addressed to attorney Peter Sumners, Old Rochester Regional School District’s legal counsel.

Sumners did not respond to a request for comment.

The letter was prompted by a 2023 complaint filed by Mattapoisett resident Kathleen LeClair.

LeClair unsuccessfully ran for Mattapoisett School Committee this year on a platform that called for transparency in the school committee. 

She said she wants “accountability.”

“You cannot have committees meeting and not have records of what was occurring,” she said.

LeClair made similar complaints toward the school’s policy subcommittee and the Old Rochester Regional School Committee as a whole. The state determined neither group violated Open Meeting Law.

The June 6 ruling came after the attorney general’s office reconsidered an August 2023 ruling that found no committee violated Open Meeting Law. The reconsideration came when the state found it had overlooked a portion of LeClair’s complaint. 

The equity subcommittee, in response to the complaint, said nearly all meetings in question included slideshow presentations attached to the minutes — which served as summaries of its discussions — but the state disagreed, according to the violation letter.

Open Meeting Law requires that records “include a substantive summary of the discussion of each topic.” 

Minutes in compliance with Open Meeting Law “should contain enough detail and accuracy so that a member of the public who did not attend the meeting could read the minutes and have a clear understanding of what occurred,” according to the state.

LeClair said she did not attend any of the meetings in question. 

The office of the attorney general identified minutes from a Jan. 25, 2022 meeting in the letter’s discussion of the Open Meeting Law violation.

The meeting lasted 90 minutes. Its minutes included only a list of topics — like “Cultural Proficiency Meeting Updates,” “Teacher Diversification PLC,” and “Grant Update” — with no additional details provided, according to the violation letter.

The state ordered the equity subcommittee to amend meeting minutes between Oct. 5, 2020 and June 21, 2022 to include summaries of discussions within 90 days of June 6. 

If the subcommittee is unable to create accurate amended minutes, it must explain to the state “what efforts it made to create sufficiently detailed meeting minutes.”

The state noted that similar future violations may be considered intentional violations. The attorney general can fine public bodies no more than $1,000 for each intentional violation of Open Meeting Law. 

Old Rochester Regional School District Superintendent Michael Nelson said the school district and equity subcommittee “will meet any required responsibilities as required by the office of the attorney general and most importantly continue to prioritize the educational needs of all our students and families.”