Problems in Brookfield

It is the responsibility of a board of education in Ohio to conduct open and orderly meetings. For whatever reason, the Brookfield Local School District's board is failing in that responsibility.
As a matter of law, citizens do not have a right to speak at a public meeting. The board can have a disruptive member of the audience removed. No meeting should be allowed to devolve into a free-for-all.
At the same time, the board cannot, as a matter of convenience, conduct business behind closed doors. And as a matter of politics, board members ignore or antagonize their electorate at their own peril.
It is obvious that tensions are mounting in the community, fueled by the board's attempt to reduce costs, the effect that cutbacks have had on employees (some of whom have obvious support in the community), and, it would appear, some personality conflicts.
Bad idea gone bad
One of the board's responses to the tension was an ill-conceived requirement that anyone addressing the board submit a written request five days in advance. Only specific questions covered in the request are recognized by the board.
While we acknowledge that the board has no legal obligation to recognize any member of the audience, this is a policy almost guaranteed to increase, rather than abate, tensions.
Boards should conduct their business in the open, give people who come to the meeting a reasonable opportunity to ask questions or express opinions and make it clear that members of the audience who abuse the privilege will be asked to leave and be treated as trespassers if they are disruptive.
Members of the public who believe that the board is not working within Ohio's open meetings law should educate themselves on what the law allows and what it requires.
The 2006 edition of Ohio's Sunshine Law manual ("The Yellow Book") was put out by former Attorney General Jim Petro, but is still available from the office of the new attorney general, Marc Dann. The book can be ordered from Dann's office or can be downloaded in a PDF format by going on the attorney general's Web site. It may also be available at the nearest public library.
Both sides might never agree, but all must follow the law. Eventually the community will decide who is right and who is wrong -- at the ballot box.