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Extracted from Consolidated Report

This investigation was originally published as part of a larger consolidated report containing multiple investigations. View the consolidated PDF for the complete document.

El Dorado County Grand Jury • 2000-2001

Black Oak Mine Unified School District

4 pages
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Findings 15 findings

F1 Page 47
The majority of the BOMUSD Board intended to reassign an administrator to the classroom in the hope that that person would resign.
F2 Page 47
There is a question as to whether the action to reassign the administrator took place at the Board’s March 11, 1999 meeting or at its May 26, 1999 meeting.
F3 Page 47
The Board did not preserve audio tapes of either meeting, as its practice was to maintain tapes of open sessions for only one month. Further, the Board’s practice was to not tape closed sessions as is permitted in Government Code Section 54957.2 (a). 48
F4 Page 48
The Grand Jury finds the action was taken on May 26, 1999 for the following reasons: a. A letter dated August 16, 1999 from counsel for the Board to the counsel for the Administrator refers to action taken on May 26, 1999. b. The Board’s minutes show that all members of the Board were present at the May 26, 1999 meeting, but not at the March 11, 1999 meeting. c. The original, unsigned, minutes of the May 26, 1999 meeting do not reflect any reassignment action. In the August 12, 1999 meeting, the Board moved, seconded, and unanimously carried that the minutes of the May 26, 1999 board meeting be amended to reflect the action of reassigning the administrator.
F5 Page 48
Section 35163 of the Education Code provides: “Every official action taken by the governing board of every school district shall be affirmed by a formal vote of the members of the board, and the governing board of every school district shall keep minutes of its meetings, and shall maintain a journal of its proceedings in which shall be recorded every official act taken.”
F6 Page 48
No formal vote was taken at the May 26, 1999 closed session meeting for the action reassigning the administrator to the classroom.
F7 Page 48
Section 54957.7(b) of the Government Code provides: “After any closed session, the legislative body shall reconvene into open session prior to adjournment and shall make any disclosures required by Sec. 54957.1 of action taken in the closed section.”
F8 Page 48
Government Code Section 54957.1 provides: “The legislative body of any local agency shall publicly report action in closed session and the vote or abstention of every member present thereon.”
F9 Page 48
The minutes of the May 26, 1999 board meeting violate the above sections for the following reasons: · There was no mention of a closed session in accordance with the Agenda; · There was no mention of action taken or votes of the members in the Closed Session; · There was no reporting out of the action; · The Minutes are not signed.
F10 Page 48
Subsequent to notice of this violation of the Brown Act in a letter from the administrator’s attorney on July 9, 1999, the Board on August 12, 1999 amended the minutes of the May 26, 1999 meeting to reflect that “the Board directed the Superintendent to notify complainant of the action taken on May 49 26, 1999.” No mention of the vote of all members present, as required by Government Code Section 54957.1, was made in this amendment.
F11 Page 49
This amendment of the May 26, 1999 board meeting minutes constitutes an admission that the Board violated the Brown Act on that date.
F12 Page 49
As a matter of custom and practice, the Board's Agendas contain generic notices of closed session discussions regarding evaluation of administrators regardless of the specific purposes of the Closed Sessions. This custom and practice effectively controverts the intent of the Brown Act that the public be notified of the actual intentions of the Board.
F13 Page 49
BOMUSD Board Policy BB 9323.2(a) states: “An 'action' by the Board means: a. A collective decision by a majority of the Board members; b. A collective commitment by a majority of the members to make a positive or negative decision; or c. A vote by the majority of the members when sitting at the Board. (Gov. Code Sec. 54952.6)” This policy is inconsistent with Education Code Section 35163, which states: “Every official action taken by the governing board of every school district shall be affirmed by a formal vote of the members of the board, …..”
F14 Page 49
The Minutes of the Board Meetings of May 26 and August 12, 1999 do not contain sufficient detail to adequately reflect the discussions and/or actions. Similar deficiencies are noted in minutes of other meetings of the Board.
F15 Page 49
The Grand Jury investigation of actions taken by the Board of the BOMUSD was unnecessarily delayed by the current Superintendent and the President of the 2000 Board.

Recommendations 6