State ruling causes alarm

A recent state ruling regarding the state's open meeting law (OML) and public meetings during the pandemic had area school districts scrambling to make sure they were following the law, and changing procedures if they weren't.

The Minnesota Commissioner of Administration issued an advisory opinion on April 19, in response to The Timberjay newspaper publisher Marshall Helmberger, ruling that the St. Louis County School Board violated the state's open meeting law when at least a quorum of school board members met in person, but members of the public were not allowed physical access.

In part, the advisory opinion stated: "The Commissioner notes that there is currently not a mechanism in the OML for public body members to hold in-person meetings while limiting public attendance to electronic monitoring. Section 13D.021 permits telephone or electronic meetings of public bodies during a health pandemic or Chapter 12 emergency, meaning that a quorum of a public body that intends to gather in order to discuss, decide, or receive information related to public business under this section must do so via telephone or other electronic means."

A survey of school superintendents across Carlton County shows that change is in the air, as a direct result of the OML ruling and updated guidance from the Minnesota School Board Association.

In Cloquet, where a majority of school board members have been attending in person with one or two online throughout much of the pandemic, the meetings have been livestreamed to YouTube and accessed by the public that way. Superintendent Michael Cary said Cloquet is tentatively planning to open meetings to the public starting with the next

For now, they will also continue to livestream the meeting online, although that is up for discussion.

Both Cary and Barnum superintendent Mike McNulty said the MSBA had previously advised school districts that it was within the guidelines of open meeting law to broadcast meetings digitally (because of the public emergency caused by the pandemic) and provide options for public comment via other means than in-person attendance, comments to be read during the meeting.

"When we received this guidance, there was no distinction between board members being either physically present or attending remotely," McNulty said. "We have had a mix of in-person and digital attendance by board members throughout the pandemic, although over the last few months we have been mostly in-person attendance. We also streamed our meetings live on our Barnum Facebook page so the public could watch and listen."

As of its May 4 meeting, Barnum allowed the public to physically attend the meeting or watch via the Facebook page.

In Wrenshall, meetings have been offered both in-person and virtually since April 6, 2020 for both board members and members of the public. Meetings were livestreamed and posted to Facebook, and Facebook comments monitored during meetings.

In nearby Carlton the board is still meeting entirely online, and met in person only once, to certify the school board election, according to superintendent John Engstrom. The public was allowed to attend that meeting, and two or three people did. Engstrom said he expects to switch back to in-person meetings, but there is no date set for that.

Other school districts had already resumed in-person meetings for both school board members and the public. Esko went from meetings held entirely online to meetings in the auditorium, to allow for social distancing. Moose Lake is also back to meeting in person, and is still recording meetings and posting to the school website as well as the local public access channel.

The MSBA advised its members that if three board members - which is less than a quorum - met, it would not be considered an in-person meeting. But if a quorum or more meets, they must provide physical access to meetings, in spaces where social distancing can be maintained.