BOE to Block Public Comments at Charter Meeting

Last week, the Gilmer County Board of Education (BOE) announced a special called meeting scheduled for this Thursday, January 26th to discuss the Oakland Academy Charter School application. Oakland officially submitted the application to the board on December 15th. According to the application, the board has until February 13th to render a decision on whether or not to allow Oakland to operate as a charter school in Gilmer County. The deadline, though, comes before the board’s February meeting and its January meeting has come and gone already. However, in an email to FYN last week Superintendent Bryan Dorsey noted that the purpose of the meeting will be to discuss the charter application, making no mention of the board rendering a decision during the session.

The announcement comes on the heels of hawkish comments by Oakland Board Chairman Isaac Lassiter at the January meeting. During the meeting, Lassiter criticized the BOE’s leadership and called for at least two weeks notice for a meeting to discuss Oakland’s application, saying that five minute time limits for public comments to discuss the application was

“insulting to the Oakland Board of Trustees and the public.”

When the meeting was announced Lassiter requested to be put on the agenda for public comments, but was told that the meeting

“would not be open to public comment at this time.”

FYN was contacted by other citizens wishing to speak at the meeting who were given the same response. After a series of correspondence, Superintendent Dorsey emailed Lassiter and FYN explaining,

“Public participation is during our regular scheduled board meetings and public hearings. This is a called meeting of the board for the sole purpose to discuss the application, ask questions to any ‘founding charter board members’ that should choose to attend, or give additional direction for me to compile further information on the issue.”

Dorsey’s explanation, though, calls into question the Open Meetings Act, the legislation allowing public comments at meetings open to the public. Georgia State Attorney General Sam Olens had this to say about the legislation.

“The Act,” he writes, “does not require that actual legal advertisements be taken out in a newspaper nor does it provide for an opportunity for a person to speak during a meeting, although both of these items reflect a better practice in assuring public involvement in their government operations.”

This Thursday’s meeting will at the very minimum feature a discussion about the Oakland Academy Charter School between the BOE and Oakland board members. And, as of now, any citizens present will act only as spectators, not participants.