public notice of meeting and/or "special" agenda item

[Guest guestrt]

A Superintendant is "sneaking" her way onto separate Elementary & Middle School PTO mtgs to propose year-round school calendar and/or modified calendar that will effect the entire school district. The mtgs are typically filled with pto board members only. When the Superintendant is questioned on how the public and/or school dristrict was notified about the special agenda item for the meeting, while present at said meeting. The response is none. The same response comes from members of the PTO. Is it ok, to not give notice to the public of such a meetings? The Superintendant has never been present in either PTO mtgs. for the past 3 years. Yet wants this subject to go to the school board for a vote on November, 9th. I know for a fact the Elementary PTO bylaws are governed by the RONR

[dglynch]

According to RONR, only the members of the body that is meeting need be given any notice of its meetings, and even then, that notice need not usually include any specific mention of of the business planned to be considered at that meeting.

If there are laws in your area that affect these kinds of bodies in ways not contemplated by RONR (such as the so-called "sunshine" laws), we don't know anything about that.

[Larry Cisar]

Only if the meeting is a special meeting, or the item itself requires notice, does notice need to go out mentioning the business and then only to members of the body meeting. As to any sunshine law that might affect the notice, consult an attorney.

[Trina]

A Superintendant is "sneaking" her way onto separate Elementary & Middle School PTO mtgs to propose year-round school calendar and/or modified calendar that will effect the entire school district. The mtgs are typically filled with pto board members only. When the Superintendant is questioned on how the public and/or school dristrict was notified about the special agenda item for the meeting, while present at said meeting. The response is none. The same response comes from members of the PTO. Is it ok, to not give notice to the public of such a meetings? The Superintendant has never been present in either PTO mtgs. for the past 3 years. Yet wants this subject to go to the school board for a vote on November, 9th. I know for a fact the Elementary PTO bylaws are governed by the RONR

I would be much more concerned about the rules governing the meeting of the school board, and possible public access and notification rights in that venue (which likely have nothing much to do with RONR). Around here, at least, PTOs do not have any authority to modify the school calendar, although I suppose they can talk about it as much as they want at their meetings.

If your primary concern is with proper procedure within the PTO meeting, take a look at the organization's bylaws, to see if they are disobeying their own rules in any way. From your post, it didn't sound as though the Superintendent was there without the consent of the assembly (since you say that "the same response comes from members of the PTO")... or did you mean to suggest otherwise?