BOE Meetings

Governor Cuomo’s Executive Order 202.1 dated March 12, 2020 suspended the provisions of the Open Meetings Law that require school boards to conduct their business at meetings that allow for in-person attendance by members of the public. Pursuant to that Executive Order, school boards instead may meet through the use of electronic means such as online video and teleconferencing. When meeting in this fashion, the public must have the ability to view or listen to such proceedings and meetings must be recorded and later transcribed.

Guidelines:

Districts are encouraged to consider the following planning actions and protocols to better protect the integrity of Board of Education meetings held via an online conferencing platform:

  • Develop a "housekeeping" script to announce the electronic/online meeting norms and expectations at the start of the meeting.

  • Schedule a meeting test with your Board of Education members prior to the first meeting offered via online conferencing to ensure each Board member is able to connect successfully via the technology and to "dry-run" the meeting norms and expectations.

  • Leverage different roles in your online conferencing platform to distinguish between participating district administrative staff & Board of Education members, and the general public.

  • Reinforce for participating district administrative staff and Board of Education members the need to keep their microphones muted unless speaking to help minimize distracting background noise.

  • Decide how you will facilitate a public comment period if included in your Board meeting. Districts can consider limiting public questions to a chat or Q&A box within the online conferencing platform or (depending on the platform) unmute individual attendees for public comment.

  • Consider how you will handle an executive session when applicable, including utilizing waiting rooms for any pre-meeting conversations.

  • Announce at the beginning of the meeting that it will be recorded.

  • Leverage transcription services for meeting recordings as applicable.


Click your preferred platform below for more specific tips for public meeting use.