AG rules Lexington school council violated Open Meetings Act in cutting art courses

Lexington’s Cassidy Elementary School-Based Decision-Making Council violated the Kentucky Open Meetings Act when it failed to properly document votes while cutting art courses, Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman announced Monday.

Robert Mattheu, a Louisville social media commentator on education who filed the appeal in the Lexington situation, contended the Cassidy school council violated the Kentucky Open Meetings Act by conducting two anonymous votes in deciding to cut art instruction.

Coleman said Cassidy’s school council violated the Kentucky Open Meetings Act at its Feb. 26 and March 25 meetings.

Mattheu submitted a complaint to the Superintendent of the Fayette County Public Schools May 14 claiming the council violated the act at its Feb. 26 and March 25, 2024, meetings when it “conducted two anonymous votes regarding the removal of a subject from the school curriculum,” the ruling said.

The attorney general’s office determined it lacked jurisdiction to consider that complaint because it was not first submitted to the presiding officer of the council.

Subsequently, on June 22, the presiding officer of the council said the body “agrees to amend its minutes to reflect that each member of [the Council] voted to uphold the February decision,” and that it would “conduct additional training on open meeting and open records for its members. The council stated its “substantive decision will remain unchanged,” Coleman’s ruling said.

Mattheu initiated a new appeal.

Under state law,“the minutes of action taken at every meeting of any such public agency, setting forth an accurate record of votes and actions at such meetings, shall be promptly recorded, the ruling said. Cassidy’s council agrees it “should not have used an anonymous vote” and states it will “amend its minutes to reflect that each member of the [Council] voted to uphold that February decision.”

“Thus, the Council violated the Act when it used anonymous votes and did not accurately record its votes in its meeting minutes,” the ruling said.

After the ruling was announced Monday, Mattheu told the Herald-Leader he would have liked the ruling to require the council “to provide documentation of their secret vote on which area (course) they were going to remove, but it’s nice to have at least an acknowledgment of the violation. “

Fayette Public Schools spokesperson Dia Davidson-Smith said in response to the ruling Monday it concludes “a situation that was already remediated months ago on March 25th, when the issue was first brought to the attention of the Cassidy SBDM Council.”

“FCPS has reviewed the recently released guidance from the AG and will continue to follow the law regarding SBDM councils and the way those meetings are conducted, as well as how notes (and) minutes are collected,” she said.