This week, the Senate Education Committee passed SB 806, by Senator Steven Glazer (D-Walnut Creek), that, among other things, purports to require charter schools to follow the Brown Act, Bagley-Keene Act and California Public Records Act. The measure, however, contains several substantial loopholes that would allow the Boards of charter schools to meet and act in secret. The bill also contains a provision that would allow charter schools to charge a requester of information the actual costs associated with producing the information even if the requester wants only to inspect the record.
The bill passed on a 4-1 vote and is scheduled to be heard on Tuesday, April 25 in the Senate Judiciary Committee.
CNPA, the California Teachers Association and several education groups oppose the bill.
Specifically, SB 806 would allow a charter school governing body to meet at a charter school facility or at a teleconference location if it is available in at least one charter school facility, within the physical boundaries of each county in which any of the charter school’s facilities are located.
This would allow the board to have discretion to meet by teleconference anywhere within the county where the charter school is located. This provision would permit, for example, the board of a charter school located in Pomona to meet by teleconference at its charter school located in Malibu. Both locations are in Los Angeles County but the community served by the charter school in Pomona would have to travel to Malibu to participate in the meeting.
Moreover, since there is no requirement in the bill that there be at least a quorum of the board physically present — only that “a teleconference location is available,” — those traveling from Pomona to Malibu could be limited to just listening and speaking to a phone set up at the charter school facility with all of the members of the governing body physically located in San Francisco.
Charter school boards seeking to avoid scrutiny or simply sidestep controversial or unpopular items they are considering could seriously abuse these provisions to their advantage at the expense of the public.
SB 806 also exempts committees of the charter school from the requirements of the Brown Act unless the committee is comprised of a majority of the members of the governing body of the charter school. This could be used by a charter school governing body to delegate much of or all of its work to committees to prevent the public from commenting or being present when the decision-makers develop consensus on a controversial item they may be considering.
The bill also would allow a charter school to take up to 20 days from receipt of a request for information to determine whether the request, in whole or in part, seeks copies of disclosable public records in possession of the charter school. Under current law, an agency has 10 days to make this determination. Nonetheless, requesters of information continually experience significant delays in obtaining information under the 10-day standard.
SB 806 would allow charter schools to require payment of actual costs from a person making a request for information before producing the records. Under the CPRA, an agency may only charge the direct cost of duplication or a statutory fee, if any, for copies of records.
This provision would allow a charter school to charge a requester for the charter school’s costs associated with retrieving information, an attorney’s time to review each and every document sought, software costs, anything incidentally related to responding to the request. This would be a significant burden to a person or newspaper with limited financial means and operates as a potential bar to access charter school information.
During the hearing, the author told committee members that he was willing to accept amendments that address opponents’ concerns but none of the opponents have yet seen the amendments.
SB 806 is scheduled to next be heard on Tuesday, April 25 in the Senate Judiciary Committee.
