Dennis Malone, the district’s director of human resources, presented the proposed change in the policy statement for first reading. Second reading and action is expected at the March 25 meeting.
That additional sentence reads: “Whenever possible, board members are to use their district-issued email account when communicating, via email, about organization, functions, policies, decisions, procedures, operations or other activities of the Talawanda School District.”
Malone told the board the proposed change was written by the board’s attorney after the issue had been raised by a board member earlier. Most district policy revisions are suggested by NEOLA, which tracks state and national laws and regulations and proposes policy revisions to conform with them.
This change was suggested at the Jan. 28 meeting of the board by Patrick Meade, who said board communications should go through the district email system.
“The board should use Talawanda email to do board business and only do board business, not use private email,” Meade said at the time. “It would help us be more transparent.”
The policy notes email as a form of communication is subject to the state’s Sunshine Law and therefore should be used for six specific purposes of routine business. However, it does have a caution.
“Under no circumstances shall board members use email or text messages to discuss among themselves board business that is only to be discussed in an open meeting of the board, is part of an executive session, or could be considered an invasion of privacy if the message were to be monitored by another party,” the policy states. “There should be no expectation of privacy for any messages sent by email. Messages that have been deleted may still be accessible on the hard drive, if the space has not been occupied by other messages. Messages, deleted or otherwise, may be subject to a disclosure under the Public Records Act, unless an exemption would apply.”
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