Triton School lacks transparency with its citizens

So many things can happen in five months. Or not, as the case seems to be with the Triton School Board minutes.
As the end of the year approaches, cities and counties around the state are readying for annual, organizational meetings, which for some happen in January. While not usually very exciting, these meetings include “official” designations for the coming year — acting mayor, official depositories, and official publication.
Naturally, we’re concerned about the designations for official publication. As a registered, weekly publication, the Dodge County Independent has enjoyed its longtime status as official publication for Dodge County, and many of its cities, townships and school districts.
A weekly publication offers the advantage of providing timely access for residents — taxpayers — to assess and question the decisions being made by the people they elected to serve their best interests.
Recently, we shared our thoughts about Triton School District’s decision to pull its legals from the Dodge County Independent and instead, run the legals in the Dodge Center Messenger. In its Dec. 13 edition, its editorial staff wrote that the Dodge Center Messenger produces two printed publications per month. We acknowledge the Dodge Center Messenger published twice in December — but still question whether that is true of the last 18 months. We only found one printed paper up in each month until now.
See, a weird thing happened when the legals were moved from the Dodge County Independent to the Dodge Center Messenger. No Triton School Board meeting minutes were published — and we mean, printed, as required by Minnesota State Statute 331A.01, Subd. 13. — from July 2023 and December 2023.
But here’s what happens when the publication does not print on a weekly basis:
In June, the school district approved a preliminary budget for the 2023-24 school year and certified the district’s population estimate for the 2023 Payable 2024 levy. This information was included in the July 2023 meeting minutes, which have not been printed to date.
In July, the Triton School Board approved its stipends at $40 per full board meeting, $25 for other related meetings, $80 for full day meetings, and an additional $250 stipend for the board chair. In addition, in a 35-second discussion, the school board approved the Dodge Center Messenger as the official publication. “Yeah,” Superintendent Craig Schlichting said, “the Messenger will be published twice monthly now so it can be our official school paper.” That didn’t happen until December.
In August, the school board set the Dec. 18 meeting “as the Regular Board Meeting to Discuss the Levy & Budget.” In September, the proposed levy certification was approved — not a single dollar amount was cited during the meeting or in the subsequent minutes, but in a 32-second discussion, board members voted to certify the levy at the “maximum amount.”
The regular meeting held Oct. 16 featured a presentation on the 2022-23 audit report, followed by a discussion on the gifted and talented activity report. A 90-minute “school board study session” was held Oct. 25, where testing data and “negotiations” were covered.
Now, it does need to be noted that the detail within the Triton School District meeting minutes is, in our opinion, incomplete and ineffective toward helping residents to monitor the decisions being made by elected officials. But that’s another editorial for another day. Much of the detail gathered for the preceding paragraphs was gathered by watching past public meetings posted to Craig Schlichting’s YouTube channel (not the Triton School District YouTube channel; again, another editorial for another day).
In full, the Triton School District entertained 34 items to discuss and approve from June through October and none of that information was published until the DCI contacted Superintendent Schlichting to question the legitimacy of the Dodge Center Messenger as a legal publication.
We don’t know why the Triton School Board minutes were not published for five months. But the fact is, those five months cannot be replaced, and those minutes cannot be published in a timely manner, pursuant to state requirement. There is an obvious transparency issue between Triton school officials and the public they are serving.
We acknowledge that this month, December 2023, two print editions have come forth from the Dodge Center Messenger and the first, the Dec. 1-15 edition, does publish the November 2023 meeting minutes. But we still question whether the Dodge Center Messenger has the frequency — or the oversight — to properly provide the public with consistent information about how their taxpayer dollars are being spent.
As the annual organizational matters are evaluated this month and voted on in January, we can only hope Dodge County and city officials will take this year to investigate all requirements within Minnesota’s Data Practices Act and make an educated decision based on fact and performance.