Charter School Governance
Transparency & Open Meeting Law Compliance
Your state’s Open Meetings Law is something to take seriously, but does not need to hinder your ability to be a good board.
Most open meeting laws are focused on a few key areas: the dates and locations of upcoming meetings, the agendas for upcoming meetings, and the approved minutes of past meetings.
Some boards attempt to keep up with these requirements by manually uploading PDFs to their charter’s websites, or physically posting flyers in public locations. BoardOnTrack has a better way.
When and where upcoming meetings will take place.
Are you relying on PDFs uploaded to your school’s website? It’s good to schedule your meetings for the year, in advance. But, what happens when something changes?
Schedule your meetings in BoardOnTrack. View your full calendar at a glance. And make that calendar available to the public.
With the Public Portal link, your information is always up to date and accurate.
CALIFORNIA
Youth Policy Institute [YPICS]
NEW YORK
Compass Charter Schools
Communicate upcoming meeting agenda items.
What’s going to be discussed at the next meeting?
Most Open Meeting Laws require this to be provided to the public a certain number of days in advance. And many authorizers have their own rules on this.
When you set up your agendas inside BoardOnTrack, you not only can easily build the next agenda off of the last one…you can easily make that agenda available to the public.
No PDFs on your website or flyers taped to the door.
Publish approved meeting minutes.
Most likely, your board’s approved meeting minutes must be published within a certain number of days following your meeting. How will you do that, and after every meeting?
With BoardOnTrack, you can stop wrestling with shared Google Docs, Dropbox folders, or PDFs uploaded to your website.
Take minutes in the platform, during your meeting. Distribute and approve the minutes {without hunting down email addresses}. And, finally, with the click of a button
CALIFORNIA
Equitas Academies
TENNESSEE
Gestalt Community Schools
With BoardOnTrack, complying with transparency regulations and authorizer expectations is simple. And systematized.
This is especially important for charters in growth mode. As you grow, you may become more of a target for critics, and so more at risk. And, with growth, remaining stable and sustainable becomes more of a challenge. It takes repeatable systems and processes.
With BoardOnTrack, you can stop wrestling with shared Google Docs, Dropbox folders, or PDFs uploaded to your website.
Take minutes in the platform, during your meeting. Distribute and approve the minutes {without hunting down email addresses}. And, finally, with the click of a button
Some states’ open meetings laws have very specific requirements for board meeting minutes; others do not. Be sure you’ve actually read the law (most laws are very accessible online). If there is any ambiguity in your mind, ask the board’s legal counsel for guidance.
Related Resources
OPERATE TRANSPARENTLY…EFFORTLESSLY
BoardOnTrack is the only tool built to help public charter school boards comply with open meeting law standards.
Schedule a personal tour to see how.
