Record all public meetings for greater transparency

Add one more major issue to the long list brewing within the walls of the Kasson-Mantorville School District.
Along with another shake-up in leadership and dissension among board members, we believe a lack of transparency is becoming part of the school district’s culture.
Last week, the Post Bulletin, KTTC, KIMT, KAAL, and this newspaper, all reported on what happened at the Jan. 6 school board meeting. To our knowledge, this newspaper and a news station were the only ones in attendance.
The reason everyone was able to write the story, or at least knew what was happening, is that Kasson-Mantorville Education Minnesota (KMEM), the union representing rank and file teachers across the district, graciously recorded the meeting. We commend the union for making that effort to improve transparency.
But we learned on Monday that the school district—and the union—pick and choose what the public sees.
To start with, the school board scheduled an “emergency meeting” to discuss, among other things, what the process would be for finding its next superintendent, the district’s fourth in as many years. This issue concerns the community, and residents undoubtedly want to know more about it.
Generally, communities send meeting agendas to the press and other stakeholders. When it comes to “emergency meetings,” the practice is even more common. That’s not how DCI found out about it.
Our reporter discovered the meeting agenda while searching for other information and contacted the school district to find out whether the meeting would be recorded. DCI has yet to receive a straight answer.
The reporter then contacted the teacher who recorded last week’s meeting on behalf of KMEM. (We are not naming the source in order to respect their privacy.) A union representative said the union decides when meetings are important enough to record. An example would be picking the board chair.
This raised a red flag, especially since DCI had not received a response about whether the district would record the emergency meeting.
The reporter then called the district’s communications director to inquire and learned the district had no intention of recording the Jan. 6 meeting, the Jan. 13 meeting, or any meeting that wasn’t considered a “regular” board meeting.
In fact, the paper was told, school board members last year approved a policy that only requires recording of their regular meetings.
Certainly, the superintendent knew that when he received our reporter’s email about the Jan. 6 meeting.
“I am looking at the agenda for Monday, and I see the January 6th organizational meeting is going to be in the district office meeting room,” the reporter asked. “Will the (meeting) still be recorded?”
That email remains unanswered, by the superintendent.
In another disturbing incident, the superintendent last week sent a copy of his resignation letter to multiple news outlets. DCI was absent from that list, despite the fact that he was asked for a copy via email just a few minutes after he announced his departure.
We didn’t receive our copy (through the communications director) until he learned that we planned to file a data request for it.
Unfortunately, the superintendent has made a habit of refusing to answer very simple questions. And he’s not the only one.
After last week’s school board leadership vote, this newspaper called, texted, and emailed the new school board chair looking for comment as we were on deadline. We finally received an email from the district’s communications director who replied on his behalf.
Given all the turmoil within the district, we would expect the school board chair to answer calls from the press or at least his own emails.
The district’s top administrators and elected leaders have shown zero respect for this newspaper when it comes to providing information. More importantly, though, their failure to communicate is part of a larger picture, one that does a huge disservice to those whose tax dollars ultimately pay their salaries.
With the district’s current policy, only a portion of what happens at board meetings is truly in the public eye. Of course, members of the community can attend meetings, but as officials well know, few people do. In fact, many simply can’t.
Video broadcasts and recordings reach homebound seniors, parents juggling family activities or those who can’t afford childcare, along with those whose health doesn’t allow them to venture out into the harsh cold night.
At last glance, the video produced by KMEM had over 340 views. That’s 340 citizens who are better informed for having watched the meeting—340 citizens whose interest shows they care about how their tax dollars are being spent.
An email has been sent to the school board leadership, the superintendent, and communications director, asking for the school district to change its policy. In our opinion, that outdated rule belongs in 2005, not 2025.
We encourage the Kasson-Mantorville School District, every school district, and every city council, to record all meetings moving forward, for the sake of transparency.