JPS school board president: 'All meetings will be public'

Members of the Jackson Public School District school board authorized the board attorney to set up a meeting with the Ethics Commission to find out whether it violated state law by not requiring certain meetings be open to the public.

School board President Otha Burton said on Tuesday the policy the board adopted in January was actually an attempt to ensure transparency. The policy stated that though committee meetings are "not required to be open to the public," the minutes from such meetings must be transcribed.

Burton also said going forward, "all meetings will be open to the public."

Other school board members expressed their support of sending board attorney Dorian Turner.

"We don't want to leave anything to doubt," member Robert Lind said.

Jed Oppenheim, another member, also expressed his support, noting he had advocated all meetings be open.

According to Mississippi law, any public body, including a committee of a body such as a board, commission, council, or authority, should be open to the public unless an executive session is declared.

The Ethics Commission, among other duties, enforces both the Open Meetings and Public Records Acts.

The Clarion-Ledger submitted a public records request to the district's attorney on Feb. 24 requesting a list of all committee meetings held that were not open to the public.

The board's attorney Dorian Turner told The Clarion-Ledger in an earlier interview committees were "deliberately structured such as they do not act on behalf of the board" and that in her legal interpretation, the committees do not constitute a public body.

Contact Kate Royals at (601) 360-4619 or kroyals@gannett.com. Follow @KRRoyals on Twitter.