MUSD tries to avoid legal violation with special meeting

Maricopa Unified School District is putting itself in the corner.

When the May 27 meeting became blacked out by failed technology, preventing constituents from watching the proceedings, it became a legal issue. Due to COVID-19 precautions, residents could not attend the meeting in person and were directed to watch it live on the district’s YouTube channel. That was the case during earlier meetings as well.

But on May 27, when the governing board was not only reviewing important information about a second high school but also was voting on several issues like the budget, the video did not move beyond a fitful start.

The inability of the public to attend, watch or hear the meeting in real time became a violation of Arizona’s open meeting laws.

In an attempt to make up for the “possible and/or actual violation,” the board is having a special meeting Wednesday at 6 p.m. to publicly ratify the decisions made by vote during that meeting.

The votes include the approval of the personnel schedule, the suspension of board policy on staff vacations, an intergovernmental agreement with the Pinal County Elections Department for the Nov. 3 election, revision of the budget and three adjournments to go into executive (closed) sessions.

Discussed in those intentionally closed sessions were a real estate deal, a protest filed by a landowner adjacent to the property selected for the second high school and the superintendent’s contract.

The video of the May 27 meeting was made available to the public the following day.

The June 10 special meeting will be followed by a regular session at 6 p.m.