"The Albemarle County School Board’s recent change to a summary format for meeting minutes has prompted a debate involving the public’s right to know and efficiency.

The new practice was not voted on by the board but was discovered at the Sept. 28 meeting by board member Brian Wheeler, who asked that the minutes from all the meetings that were written in the summary style be pulled so the board could discuss the change.

“It’s a big change in my book,” Wheeler said 10 days after the meeting. “I don’t think we’re doing justice to our public’s right to know in our deliberations.”

After Wheeler addressed the minutes documentation change on Sept. 28, board member Steve Koleszar recommended that the board discuss and vote on its style of minute-taking at the Thursday meeting.

Under the current method, the minutes stress the actions taken but do not include comments made by each board member. The old system entailed an almost verbatim dictation of what was said during each meeting.

School Board Chairwoman Sue Freidman said the Virginia School Boards Association recommended that the division follow Robert’s Rules, which she said does not call for a word-for-word report.

Some members of the School Board also attended a VSBA-sponsored workshop at which they observed a meeting and read sample minutes that were taken in the summary manner that Albemarle now uses.

“What we have found in the two years and nine months that I’ve been on the School Board is that we have not had a previous meeting’s minutes available for the next board meeting,” said Freidman, who attended the workshop.

She said the summary format offers a more effective, efficient and responsive minute-taking process that makes better use of the board’s time and the time of its clerk, who typically spends hours transcribing each meeting.

School Board clerk Jennifer Johnston said the new method is less time-consuming for her.

“With the verbatim minutes, it was difficult to meet the turnaround time,” she said.

The summary minutes allow her to gather everyone’s talking points and turn them into a synopsis, Johnston said.

Wheeler, who did not attend the workshop, said the new format does not aptly reflect the steps the board takes to make a decision on an issue.

He noted that in the minutes from the board’s Sept. 18 meeting, it was stated: “Members shared their thoughts on the distribution of fliers at the schools.” However, those thoughts were not described in the minutes, he said, while public comments addressed to the board were written in full.“I guess I’ll have to start signing up for public comment, too,” Wheeler said.

Board members were divided on the issue of flier distribution, as evidenced by a 4-3 straw poll vote on Sept. 18, Wheeler said. The minutes, however, reflect only the unanimous decision the board came to on Sept. 28 that authorized the superintendent to limit flier distribution.

Board members Jon Stokes and Barbara Massie Mouly said they hope a compromise can be reached so the minutes reflect differing viewpoints without having a verbatim report.

The board voted, 4-3, on Sept. 28 to decide Thursday night how to record the minutes. Wheeler and Mouly opposed the motion to vote on the minute-taking process one meeting after the board addressed it. Both believe the public’s opinions should be heard before a decision is made.

“The board may have already expressed its majority views,” Mouly said, addressing how the board’s move for a vote this week would not allow board members to hear public feedback.

The rationale for having summary minutes is rooted in a statement from Robert’s Rules that was listed in the board’s agenda. It stated that minutes should be “a record of what is done at the meeting, not what is said,” Wheeler said.

He pointed out, however, that another passage from Robert’s Rules suggests that the minutes should recognize the comments of board members. It states: “When the minutes are to be published, in addition to the strict record of what is done, they should contain a list of speakers on each side of every question, with an abstract of all addresses, if not the addresses in full, when written copies are furnished.”

Stokes said adhering to Robert’s Rules is not a substantive reason to want to change the minutes, citing efficiency and the public’s entitlement to see differing viewpoints as more concrete issues that should be discussed.

Albemarle resident and former county School Board member Gary Grant said a move to summary minutes would hamper citizens who wish to stay informed on board issues.

“Voters need such information not only to know what’s going on in their tax-supported schools,” Grant said, “but also as a tool to evaluate how well, or poorly, their elected board members are representing them.”

All board meetings are now recorded as podcasts and can be heard on the county schools’ Web site. Grant said that despite the technological improvement, it can be difficult to navigate the recordings.

“It’s much easier to thumb quickly through hard-copy minutes and then consult an audio version if necessary,” he said. “I for one am willing to have my tax dollars pay for transcription time for creation of detailed public documents such as official minutes of public bodies such as school boards.”

Thursday’s board meeting will be held at 7 p.m. at the County Office Building on McIntire Road." (Matt Deegan, The Daily Progress, October 11, 2006)

Contact Matt Deegan at (434) 978-7277 or mdeegan@dailyprogress.com.