AG says emails to SBOE will be DELETED, not READ!

Last week, we posted the email address for the State Board of Education following a recommendation from Sen. Margaret Rose Henry to Pencader families.  Her advice was to lobby the SBOE as the legislature has very limited influence over matters such as closing a charter school.

We have received a copy of correspondance from the SBOE via their counsel, the AG's office to a constituent. Initially, it's an unsurprising email.  Reading between the lines, however, should spark your ire - if you are tax paying low-man-on-the-political-totem pole Delawarean, that is. 

1) If you wish to have a formal comment submitted to the state board of education on a matter that potentially could come before the state board for a vote at some unknown or potentially known date/time, you must submit that item through the appropriate education associate in DOE.

Why?

• Because the DOE has made it so easy for Delawarean to identify just which education associate is compiling various files of unknown information that could someday prove useful. 
• Because we all know that we can trust DOE to be honest, fair, transparent, comprehensive, honest, reliable, unbiased, honest, timely, transparent... and we can rest, assured that our various unknown concerns will be 100% included in the mysterious final record of any unknown issue that could potentially come before the SBOE someday.
• Because Delaware knows that DOE and its puppet, the SBOE are so committed to transparency and living in the light that they didn't need the legislature to mandate that they record their PUBLIC meetings and make those recordings available to the PUBLIC because they meet at a time that is convenient to the tax payers. (Oh, wait, the legislature did have to do that! and the SBOE meets at 1 pm when most of the public is at work.)
• Because we can rest assured that DOE is self-policing and would never need an outside evaluator to identify areas of weakness, flaws, loops that leave an opening for legal challenges.  (Oh wait, that's what NACSA did...)

Enough Sarcasm -

2) If you send correspondance directly to the SBOE regarding an issue that could at sometime be an item voted on the SBOE, expect to receive an email from the Deputy Attorney General in the Delaware Department of Justice. 

This is necessary because:

• The Secretary was out of the office for the day and the Dep. AG fills in for the secretary?
• The DOE office staff is on vacation, likely at their Rehobeth Beach homes?
• Brute intimidation towards those who pay the State Board of Education members?
• Scare Tactic to put the public in it's place?
• The SBOE members are so insulated by the Gov. who appoints them and the Sec. of Education who controls the flow of information to them, that common citizens are not permitted to access these paid appointed employees of the people? Peasants.
• The Gov. and Sec. fear that the SBOE might grow a pair, evaluate the evidence on its merit and determine a course of action other than what's recommended?  (Happened once, under Minner... Could it happen to Markell?)
• The SBOE might hold the DOE accountable for its failures and mistakes?

Sorry, sorry, more sarcasm.

3) After a deep personal struggle, I feel I am morally obligated to share the following email chain.  It has nothing to do with my own disconnect to DOE and the Gov.  I believe in transparency, accountability, and access.  Someone is using the AG to limit access to public officials who hold great power in this state. The policies and procedures that allow this to happen need to be addressed, likely by the legislature.  The processes in place only allow one side of a story to go to the SBOE, the state's side.  The SBOE needs to be permitted to view all documentation - free of manipulation and undue influence.  And I just can't trust that DOE will allow that to happen. 

You may want to read up from the bottom verses down from the top.  The oldest/first email is last.


-----Original Message-----
From: Hickey Catherine T. (DOJ) [mailto:Cathreine.Hickey@state.de.us]
Sent: Wednesday, June 22, 2011 5:44 PM
Subject: RE: Email communications regarding Pencader Charter High School

XXXXX,

Please let me clarify this matter, as I am concerned that I did not adequately communicate with you initially. It is not that your (or any other persons) email/written messages cannot be part of the record. The regulation I cited and provided the link to describes the procedure by which any comments, electronic or otherwise, can become part of the record. So, if you or any other member of the Pencader family would like to make comments that are part of the record and thus available for the State Board members to read and consider, I encourage you to look at and follow the procedure set out in the regulation. Some, if not all, of the State Board members will not even read the totality of messages that are sent to them directly via email in matters such as the formal review of Pencader, as the Board members are very aware of the need to consider only the proper record in the case when making a decision. So, once it becomes evident that a message is sent outside of the proper procedure, the recipients are likely to delete it without reading it to ensure compliance with the requirements of the law.

Catherine T. Hickey, Esquire
Deputy Attorney General
Department of Justice
102 West Water Street
Dover, DE 19904
(302) 739-7641 (voice)
(302) 739-7652 (facsimile)

---------------------------------------
To: Hickey Catherine T. (DOJ)

Subject: RE: Email communications regarding Pencader Charter High School

Thank you for your email. I fully understand that my or any other person's email/written messages cannot be a part of the record. I will share your information with the members of our Pencader family.

XXXXX

--------------------------------

From: Hickey Catherine T. (DOJ) [mailto:Cathreine.Hickey@state.de.us]

Good afternoon, XXXXX.

I represent the State Board of Education (SBE). It had come to my attention that you have sent an email message to one or more of the members of the SBE about Pencader and the formal review it is currently undergoing. As I am sure you are aware, the matter of Pencader and the formal review is expected to be on the SBE's July 21, 2011 meeting agenda. The SBE must base any decision it makes on this matter on the record, which is defined by regulation. Your email message(s) to individual Board member(s) will not be a part of the record before the Board. I have pasted a link to the applicable regulation (14 DE Admin. Coder 275.3.10) below so that you can review it and see how to make any comments you wish the SBE to consider a part of the record. Anything that is not part of the record as described in this regulation will not be part of the Board's decision.

http://regulations.delaware.gov/AdminCode/title14/200/275.pdf

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Sunshine ...

"Sunlight is said to be
the best of disinfectants."

From U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis
speaking on open government laws.

Title 14
http://delcode.delaware.gov/title14/index.shtml

Title 29
http://delcode.delaware.gov/title29/c100/index.shtml
State Government

General Regulations for State Agencies
CHAPTER 100. FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT

§ 10001. Declaration of policy.
It is vital in a democratic society that public business be performed in an open and public manner so that our citizens shall have the opportunity to observe the performance of public officials and to monitor the decisions that are made by such officials in formulating and executing public policy; and further, it is vital that citizens have easy access to public records in order that the society remain free and democratic. Toward these ends, and to further the accountability of government to the citizens of this State, this chapter is adopted, and shall be construed.

§ 10004. Open meetings.
Excerpt:
(2) All public bodies shall give public notice of their regular meetings and of their intent to hold an executive session closed to the public, at least 7 days in advance thereof. The notice shall include the agenda, if such has been determined at the time, and the dates, times and places of such meetings, including whether such meeting will be conducted by video-conferencing; however, the agenda shall be subject to change to include additional items including executive sessions or the deletion of items including executive sessions which arise at the time of the public body's meeting.

(3) All public bodies shall give public notice of the type set forth in paragraph (2) of this subsection of any special or rescheduled meeting as soon as reasonably possible, but in any event no later than 24 hours before such meeting. A special or rescheduled meeting shall be defined as one to be held less than 7 days after the scheduling decision is made. The public notice of a special or rescheduled meeting shall include an explanation as to why the notice required by paragraph (1) of this subsection could not be given.

(4) Public notice required by this subsection shall include, but not be limited to, conspicuous posting of said notice at the principal office of the public body holding the meeting, or if no such office exists at the place where meetings of the public body are regularly held, and making a reasonable number of such notices available. In addition, all public bodies in the executive branch of state government that are subject to the provisions of this chapter shall electronically post said notice to the designated State of Delaware website approved by the Secretary of State.

(5) When the agenda is not available as of the time of the initial posting of the public notice it shall be added to the notice at least 6 hours in advance of said meeting, and the reasons for the delay in posting shall be briefly set forth on the agenda.

(f) Each public body shall maintain minutes of all meetings, including executive sessions, conducted pursuant to this section, and shall make such minutes available for public inspection and copying as a public record. Such minutes shall include a record of those members present and a record, by individual members (except where the public body is a town assembly where all citizens are entitled to vote), of each vote taken and action agreed upon. Such minutes or portions thereof, and any public records pertaining to executive sessions conducted pursuant to this section, may be withheld from public disclosure so long as public disclosure would defeat the lawful purpose for the executive session, but no longer. All public bodies in the executive branch of state government that are subject to the provisions of this chapter shall electronically post final approved minutes of open public meetings to the designated State of Delaware website approved by the Secretary of State within 5 working days of final approval of said minutes.

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