North Dakota Attorney General Drew Wrigley has ruled that the Minot School District did not violate the state’s open meeting law by failing to post a public notice of meetings of its Reintegration Committee.

The committee met 10 times between July 2020 and July 2021. Members were selected by the superintendent’s office and included First District Health employees, Minot Air Force Base Public Health employees, educators and parents of students. They advised the school administration developing a plan to address precautions to take at schools to protect students and teachers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The Minot Public Schools Superintendent established a ‘Reintegration Committee’ pursuant to MPS policy to assist him in developing a plan to address precautions and keep schools as safe as possible,” wrote Wrigley in his opinion. “The Reintegration Committee contained no members of the Minot Public School Board. The Reintegration Committee met numerous times and provided information to the School Board over the course of a year. No notices or agendas were prepared or posted for the Reintegration Committee meetings. The Superintendent established the Reintegration Committee as part of his administrative duties without the Minot Public School Board direction or involvement. The same policy under which the Committee was created limited their actions to making recommendations for submission to the Board through the Superintendent. Therefore, the Minot Public School District No. 1 did not violate the open meetings law because the Reintegration Committee does not meet the statutory definition of a governing body.”

Mike Blessum requested an opinion on whether notice or agendas should have been provided.

— Andrea Johnson