The Palm Beach Post’s education reporting team of Andrew Marra and Sonja Isger notes that, notwithstanding Florida’s Sunshine Law, five of seven Palm Beach County school board members met privately Monday with U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan and talked briefly about federal education policy, charter schools and the board’s search for a new superintendent.
The closed-to-the-public huddle took place before Duncan spoke at a Forum Club of the Palm Beaches luncheon at the Kravis Center.
Considering Florida’s Sunshine Law requires public officials to discuss public business in public, the private meeting with Duncan was legally “questionable,” said Barbara Petersen, president of the First Amendment Foundation in Tallahassee.
The school district bolstered the argument that public matters were discussed in the private powwow by producing minutes of the meeting afterward. The board is scheduled to approve the minutes at its March 25 meeting.
Original article here.