Bettendorf school district agrees it did not comply with open meetings law

BETTENDORF — The Bettendorf school board has agreed to settle a lawsuit filed by the Iowa Freedom of Information Council and local media over a May 2022 school board forum where local journalists were denied entry.

The school district will reimburse the five plaintiffs — the Iowa FOI Council, the Quad-City Times, and KWQC, WQAD and WHBF television stations — $6,500 for attorney fees.

As part of the settlement, the school board acknowledged the May 25, 2022, forum — to discuss student behavior at Bettendorf Middle School with parents — did not comply with Iowa’s open meetings law and promised to comply with the law in future meetings when a majority of school board members are present.

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“Although it has taken nine months, we are grateful the Bettendorf school board and the district’s administrators finally have faced up to the regrettable reality — that the board acted in violation of both the letter, and the spirit, of Iowa’s open meetings law last year when school officials barred journalists and some interested citizens from attending a school forum,” Randy Evans, executive director of the Iowa FOI Council, said in a statement.

The Iowa FOI Council and local media will dismiss the lawsuit, filed in Scott County District Court.

A complaint was filed with the Iowa Public Information Board. In March, the board found there was a lack of probable cause that a violation occurred and dismissed the complaint.

“The Iowa Public Information Board dismissed the matter in early 2023, finding that there was no violation of Iowa’s open meetings laws because the parent work session was not an official board meeting,” the district said in an emailed statement Wednesday. “The district worked to settle the separate pending lawsuit so that all matters related to the parent work session could be finalized and the district could move forward." ”

District officials say they worked closely with legal counsel in handling both matters.

“The district remains committed to seeking parent input,” according to the email.

Student behavior, school safety

On May 25, 2022, around 300 Bettendorf parents gathered to express concerns about student behavior and school safety at Bettendorf Middle School to Superintendent Michelle Morse and the school board, which had all but one member — current president Rebecca Eastman — present.

The middle school parents had communicated concerns for weeks before the meeting, alleging inadequate action by school officials to address disorderly behavior.

The meeting also saw heightened interest because it took place one day after the Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, Texas, in which 19 children and two teachers were killed, the Iowa FOI Council said in a news release.

According to the lawsuit, parents at the meeting were told they could not record the meeting for others to watch later, and local journalists were blocked from attending.

Additionally, Bettendorf school officials failed to provide the required advance notice of the forum.

“There is no greater obligation of a school district these days than ensuring students have a safe environment in which to learn,” Evans said. “But the Bettendorf school board and school administrators let the public down by not properly conducting the school board’s meeting on May 25, 2022, in compliance with Iowa law.

“Officials’ misguided interpretation of the law has ended up indirectly costing the taxpayers of the Bettendorf district $6,500 to reimburse our legal expenses. The taxpayers also are on the hook for thousands more the district has paid its own lawyers to defend this indefensible closed-door meeting.”

Bettendorf school board attorneys had argued the gathering was not an official school board meeting because board members listened and did not discuss the concerns and criticisms shared by parents.

What the law says

Iowa's 50-year-old open meetings law (Chapter 21 of the Iowa Code), requires that any formal or informal gathering, involving a majority of members of a government board, must be open to the public — including journalists — if action or deliberation will take place on any matter within the board's policymaking responsibilities.

Additionally, the law allows attendees to photograph or record these meetings.

“No government entity can earn the trust, respect and confidence of the people it serves when government officials try to prevent the public from attending a meeting like the one held in May 2022,” Evans said.

In a letter to Morse and Eastman on June 3, 2022, the media coalition wrote, “It would stretch believability to think that spending a couple of hours listening to the concerns of parents about the behavior of some Bettendorf Middle School students … does not fall within the meaning of deliberations on matters clearly within the scope of the Board of Education’s policymaking duties.“