The Board of Education quietly posted 24-hour advance notice of a Friday night session — after the public had no way of seeing it — to discuss “grade-altering” allegations at Hillhouse High School.
Board officials rushed notice over to the City Clerk’s office after close of business at 5 p.m. Thursday.
It did not alert the media of the meeting.
The meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Friday, after the close of city business before the Christmas holiday.
The agenda describes the business of the meeting with a single sentence:
“Discussion regarding allegations of instances of grade/credit alterations at a High School.”
Click here to read the agenda
School officials were unavailable for comment.
According to someone familiar with the matter, the school system learned of the allegations this week. They concerned alleged changing of grades at Hillhouse High School.
“There’s an allegation of changing some grades,” said the person familiar with the matter. “Not standardized tests. Not a large number. This is not perceived to be pervasive. It is unclear whether it is accurate or not. However it is of such a serious nature that the superintendent felt it important to brief the board as soon as possible.”
Under law, the school board has to give at least 24 hours’ public notice of the meeting. The notice must be stamped and posted at the City/Town Clerk’s Office.
School system Chief Administrative Officer Will Clark called Deputy City Clerk Sally Brown at 4:30 p.m. Thursday asking if someone could stay late, beyond the office’s 5 p.m. closing, to stamp and post the notice, according to Brown.
She agreed to the request. A staffer received the notice by email at 4:59 p.m. Thursday, Brown said. He stamped and posted the notice at 5:08 p.m., after it was publicly closed.
“There’s no question I called Sally late in the day,” Clark said. “There’s no question we got it over there by 5 o’clock.”
Clark was asked if the public could access the information when doors close at 5 o’clock.
“Whatever their hours are the hours are,” Clark responded. “Although that doesn’t technically violate the FOI law. But you guys don’t care” about the technicalities.
Earlier this week Superintendent of Schools Reggie Mayo asked an outside lawyer to look at the cheating allegations. That lawyer, Floyd Dugas of the firm Berchem, Moses & Devlin, did so and met with school officials Thursday. After that meeting, Mayo decided the matter should be discussed in public session, not privately in executive session.
He faced a dilemma given officials’ promise of “transparent” school reform: If he waited until after the weekend, word of the allegations could be spread and the system accused of a cover-up. Rushing a pre-Christmas Friday night meeting could look like burying the news.
Additionally, the school board this past May faced criticism of trying to limit public discussion of a controversial matter by sneaking through a last-minute “emergency” meeting — in this case, on a matter that was not an emergency.
Melissa Bailey File Photo
In that case, the board was voting on a first-ever contract with a private company to manage a public school, Roberto Clemente Leadership Academy. As in this case, the City/Town Clerk’s Office was contacted toward the end of the business day preceding the surprise meeting. In that case the meeting notice was officially stamped and posted slightly less than 24 hours before the meeting was scheduled, less than the legal requirement. The board proceeded with the meeting anyway, but had to abort it when questioned about it. Read about that here.
And click here to read another story about another instance in which Clark flouted the state Freedom of Information Act this year.
School board member Alex Johnston, reached Friday morning, said he’d like to have “more information” before commenting on the way this latest matter was handled.
He did say that he had no idea a school board meeting had been scheduled for Friday night.
“I haven’t heard about this myself,” Johnston said. “I’d like to get more information.”