private school board
This is concerning the board of a
small private school. The members
apply for membership and are voted
in by the others on the board.
Currently there are 4 members.
There is no general election of board
members. My questions: (1) Is it
permissible for spouses to serve on
this type of board? The couple in
question have children in the school.
(2) Fairly often, issues are voted
upon outside of the meeting by
means of email. Recently, the budget
was circulated and members were
asked to approve it or not. There had
been considerable discussion of the
budget at the previous meeting. As a
result, the budget was revised and
circulated for approval. Is this legal,
or is it a problem concerning the
Brown Act (about which I know only
a little bit) or something else? Thank
you for your help. Susan
Re: private school board
Susan,
Thank you for your question. While the Brown Act would prevent this type of private, out-of-session meeting- the Brown Act does not apply to private school boards. However, the School by-laws most likely address procedures for meeting, voting, etc. With regards to having two spouses make up half the board, there may be conflict issues that arise which would present a problem, however once again, the by-laws would address this. If you would like to provide some more of the background and speak to me further about this, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Warmly,
Bryan Becker
619.400.4929
