School district disputes finding
The Washoe County School District Board of Trustees violated the Nevada open meeting law in January, according to Senior Deputy Attorney General John Michela. School officials said Michela’s finding of the violation is incorrect.
On Sept. 13, the AG’s office released findings pointing to a “technical violation” by the board. The issue was related to a meeting agenda item about the Association of Professional and Technical Administrators (APTA), which was said to be voluntarily stepping down as the bargaining representative for professional-technical employees.
“Clearly, the language only allowed the [board of trustees] to vote on whether the Pro-Tech employees should leave APTA to form a new union and did not permit the BOT to take any other action,” the complaint by Ron Dreher Sr. noted. “While we consider the entire agenda item illegal and are contesting the vote, the BOT had no authority to take any action against or regarding APTA, nonetheless they did so and violated the [open meeting law].”
The board’s motion on the item went beyond the agenda item’s scope, affecting APTA as a whole instead of just pro-tech employees, the AG determined. Michela wrote: “The agenda item only mentioned pro-tech employees. The motion passed affected the APTA as a whole and wasn’t limited to pro-tech employees.”
WCSD officials said they are disputing the finding.
“The Washoe County School District will be filing a response to the Office of the Attorney General and making a formal request for withdrawal of the Finding of Facts and Conclusions of Law because the findings change the standard of what is an appropriate action under a properly noticed agenda item,” WCSD spokesperson Vickie Campbell.
Michela told the board to be careful when drafting agenda items. “The Board’s agenda item should have indicated the recognition of APTA’s withdrawal could impact more than just pro-tech employees,” he wrote. “The [AG] notes a technical violation of the OML and cautions the Board to avoid drafting its agenda items in a manner which indicates action on the
item will be limited in scope.”
Ron Dreher Sr. filed a complaint with the AG on Jan. 23, alleging the open meeting law violation. Attorney Ron Dreher Jr. represented APTA.
