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School Boards: guide to the legislation
Availability of documents | 8. (1) Subject to paragraph (2) below, a School Board shall, as soon as possible, make available at the school for inspection by any person who wishes to see it a copy of the following documents - (a) the agenda for every meeting of the Board; (b) the draft minutes of every such meeting if they have been approved by the chairman of the meeting; (c) the minutes of every such meeting as approved by the Board; and (d) any report or other document considered at such a meeting.
(2) There may be excluded from any document required to be made available under paragraph (1) above anything relating to the following subjects: - (a) a particular person employed at, formerly employed at, or who has applied to be employed at, the school; (b) a particular person who is, has been, or is likely to be, a pupil at the school; (c) any information which the Board are legally obliged not to disclose; and (d) any matter which the Board are satisfied should be dealt with on a confidential basis because of its nature.
(3) This regulation shall apply to an Interim School Board and to a committee of a School Board or Interim School Board as it applies to a School Board. |
Public access to meetings | 9. (1) Subject to paragraph (2) meetings of a School Board shall be open to persons not otherwise entitled under the Act to attend them. (2) A School Board may exclude such persons from a meeting during consideration of any item of business relating to any of the subjects specified in regulation 8(2) above. (3) This regulation shall apply to an Interim School Board and to a committee of a School Board or Interim School Board as it applies to a School Board. |
Regulations 8 and 9: PUBLIC ACCESS TO BOARD MEETINGS AND PAPERS These regulations prescribe the extent to which the public has access to Board papers and meetings. They have been framed around the general principle that the public should have access to Board papers and meetings unless there is a clear reason for access to be refused. Regulation 9 provides for meetings of a Board or any of its committees to be open to the public (except when the subjects prescribed under regulation 8 are under discussion). Although Boards have a discretionary power to exclude information relating to the categories mentioned above, they should ensure that they do not publish or discuss in a public forum any information which is of a personal and sensitive nature to a named individual. Nor should they ever disclose information which they are legally obliged not to disclose. In this context, Boards will require to consider section 8(5) of the Act which requires them to ensure compliance with the legal duties placed on their education authorities. If an authority passes information to a Board which the authority are legally required to treat as confidential, the Board must also ensure that the information is treated confidentially. Boards have discretion not to disclose any information on any matter which Boards themselves are satisfied should be dealt with on a confidential basis because of its nature. A Board would not, however, be acting reasonably if the public were continually denied access to its papers and meetings simply because it decided for no good reason to deem the matters under discussion confidential. It is intended that Boards will only exercise this power when there are very good reasons why the public should not have access to the information; for example, when the Board might be discussing commercially sensitive information in the context of a tender for a contract or deciding whom to co-opt to the Board. |
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