Under the Open Public Meetings Act (OPMA), school boards are required to conduct regular meetings openly and in full view of the public. The OPMA states,
“The people of this state do not yield their sovereignty to the agencies which serve them. The people, in delegating authority, do not give their public servants the right to decide what is good for the people to know and what is not good for them to know. The people insist on remaining informed so that they may retain control over the instruments they have created.”[1]
Despite receiving significant federal Covid funds [Fig 1.], school board meetings are only discriminatively open and in full view of the public. Exposed faces are banned and virtual meetings prevent the public from hearing the meeting and speaking during the public comment period. These conditions violate the spirit of the Open Public Meetings Act.
The Washington State School Directors’ Association (WSSDA) publishes a guide on the OPMA for school boards. Because of Covid-19, the WSSDA issued an update on the OPMA, which states, “…offering an in-person component to a board meeting is optional, whereas offering a virtual component is required. Nothing prevents school boards from holding board meetings in an entirely virtual manner, which avoids disruption over face coverings.”[2]
Sedro-Woolley’s meetings are open to the public with a face-covering requirement. If a community member is unable to wear a mask, virtual attendance is an option.[3] The problem is, virtual access is fraught with technical difficulties and attendees are unable to hear or view the meeting and visual presentations.
Most Skagit County school districts enable features on their virtual software that allow the public to speak or write in real-time during board meetings[4] [5] [6] [7] Sedro-Woolley is among the most restrictive as it bars real-time comments by the public. Instead of allowing the public to speak for themselves, as Zoom software allows, school board members or district staff read aloud letters submitted to them by the public.[8] Attending a virtual Sedro Woolley School Board meeting is incredibly frustrating. District employees or board members who read submitted public comments stumble over unfamiliar words and figures. Those reading submitted comments are not able to express the emotion of the writer or emphasize the important passages. Letters become nothing more than a jumble of words.
Efforts to engage in a dialog with the Sedro-Woolley School Board have brought no response. There is no question and answer period during board meetings and often no reply to any letters or correspondence. Attempts to meet with individual board members have been ignored repeatedly. Technical difficulties during virtual meetings make it difficult-to-impossible to follow along. Despite many comments to the school board about these issues, they remain unaddressed and Sedro-Woolley school district has opted not to correct these issues despite having $5 million Covid funds remaining for expenditure [Fig 1.]. At the most recent meeting, speakers couldn’t be heard for a majority of the meeting, multiple presentations were not displayed on screen for online participants and the public attending virtually was still banned from speaking in the meeting. One is left to conclude that the district is not really interested in hearing from the public.