The school board recently started having an “informal meeting” prior to Regular School Board Meetings. An agenda without listed agenda items is provided for each informal meeting. Since no items are listed on the agenda, it is not possible for the public or media to determine what will be discussed prior to the meeting.
The informal meetings are voice recorded. The informal meeting on November 3rd was 3 hours in length while November 17th informal meeting was 1 hour, 18 minutes.
Under Florida Sunshine Law, lawmakers cannot converse with eachother outside of public view (excluding meetings involving litigation). This makes the decision making process slower and less streamlined. Through the informal meetings, the School Board gains flexibility in being able to discuss issues without having to follow set guidelines which may ease their decision making process. However, not telling the public what they will be discussing leads to less transparency overall.
The next informal school board meeting is December 8th at 10:00am.