Except in the case of a narrowly defined emergency meeting,1 a school board cannot hold a meeting unless it provides public notice of the meeting as required by the Open Meetings Act. The public notice must include the following information: (1) the name, address, and telephone number of the school board; (2) the time, date, place, and type (regular or special) of the meeting; and (3) notice of providing reasonable accommodations to ensure compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
For regular meetings, a school board must post its meeting schedule within ten days after the board’s first meeting in each calendar or fiscal year. If there is a change in the regular meeting schedule, new notice must be given no more than three days after the meeting at which the change occurs and at least 18 hours before the rescheduled meeting. The notice must provide the new dates, times, and places of the board’s regular meetings.
If a school board schedules a special meeting, the board must provide public notice of the meeting at least eighteen hours before the start of the meeting. OMA does not include a definition of a “special meeting,” but the common interpretation of the term is that it includes any “meeting” of a school board outside of the board’s regular meeting schedule, which would include workshops, study sessions, retreats or any other gathering that involves a quorum of the board deliberating on school district or board related issues.
Bylaw provisions for notice to board members of special meetings should prescribe contents of the meeting notice for board members, methods of delivering the notice, and deadlines for members to receive notice as required by the Revised School Code.2
The public notice of regular and special meetings must be posted in a prominent and conspicuous place at the principal office of the school board and at the principal office of the school district. (Usually, both of these are at the same location.) The person posting the notice must be sure that it is posted in a location where it can be seen at all hours of the day as all public notices must be accessible by the public during the full notice period required by the Act. The best means of assuring compliance is to post the notice at a main entrance outside the building that serves as the principal office of the school board.
If a school district maintains a website that includes monthly or more frequent updates on school board meeting agendas or minutes, the district must post notices of rescheduled regular or special meetings in a prominent and conspicuous place on an accessible portion of the website at least eighteen hours before the start of the meeting. If the notice is not included on the school district’s homepage, then it must be placed on a separate webpage that is dedicated to public notices for non-regularly scheduled meetings. This webpage must be accessible via a prominent and conspicuous link on the school district’s homepage that clearly describes the page as serving the purpose of providing public notice of non-regularly scheduled school board meetings.
Please contact the MASB Legal Department if you have any questions about meeting notices or other OMA requirements.
1 A school board may meet in an emergency session without complying with notice requirements of OMA if it becomes necessary to deal with a severe and imminent threat to the health, safety, or welfare of the public and two-thirds of the members decide delay would be detrimental to efforts to lessen or respond to the threat. MCL 15.265(5)
2 “Special meetings may be called and held in the manner and for the purposes specified in the bylaws.” MCL 380.11a(6)