Confusion exists over whether a Valley charter school operator’s board meetings should be open to the public.
Edkey, Inc. operates charter schools in several Valley cities, including Mesa, Phoenix and Maricopa.
ABC15 has checked once per week every week in 2016, but has not seen any board meeting agendas posted online since 2015 ended.
ABC15 was barred from entering a 2015 meeting of Edkey's corporate board.
However, an opinion from the Arizona Attorney General states that corporate board meetings are indeed public if “a quorum of the charter school governing board is present, and… there is discussion about matters that could foreseeably come to a vote before the charter school governing board.”
Edkey has little reason for existence other than the administration of the charter schools, tax documents show.
Several controversies have embroiled Edkey schools over the last year.
Sheron Butler, a onetime coach and teacher at Mesa’s Sequoia Charter Schools, was arrested in July after being accused of having sex with a student. He pled not guilty.
In September, students walked out of Maricopa’s Sequoia Pathway Academy after popular administrators were temporarily taken off the job.
State law states that “public bodies… including governing bodies of charter schools, shall… [p]ost all public meeting notices on their website and give additional public notice as is reasonable and practicable as to all meetings.”
Greer said he asked the school’s webmaster to post agendas online. The webmaster had the day off Monday, and so was not available, according to Greer.
