FCPS argues challenged book committee is not subject to Open Meetings Act

Jan. 19—Frederick County Public Schools is arguing that a committee it is forming to review 35 challenged library books is not subject to the Maryland Open Meetings Act (OMA).

The committee will feature 60 people, including parents, students and FCPS employees. Its members will be tasked with reading the 35 books and determining whether they should be allowed to remain on school library shelves across the county.

Former Board of Education candidate Cindy Rose spurred the review process in October, when she filed a complaint alleging the books contained inappropriate material.

The Frederick News-Post last month filed a complaint with the state's Open Meetings Compliance Board, arguing that the review committee meetings should be open for public observation.

In a response to the News-Post's complaint dated Jan. 12, lawyers for the district wrote that the review committee does not meet the OMA's definition of a "public body" and is not required to allow the public to observe its work.

The response differentiates between the Frederick County Board of Education and FCPS, and emphasizes that the review committee is under the direction of FCPS employees rather than board members.

FCPS' attorneys cited a recent ruling from the compliance board in which the complainant argued that a COVID-19 advisory task force formed by Montgomery County Public Schools had violated the OMA.

MCPS created the task force in the fall of 2021, appointing parents, employees, union officials, medical professionals and members of local parent advocacy groups. It was unrelated to the Montgomery County Board of Education, and no board members served on it.

The compliance board ruled that no violation of the OMA had occurred because the group was not a public body.

FCPS' response said the MCPS case "applies directly to the circumstance here."

The district's lawyers also argued the matter at hand was different from a 2010 case in which the compliance board ruled that a Baltimore County Public Schools redistricting committee was a public body subject to the OMA.

That was because the Baltimore County Board of Education had a policy which "clearly required" that the district's superintendent create the committee, the compliance board said.

The Frederick County school board policy that speaks to book reviews, meanwhile, says only that they may be requested by county residents and that the regulations governing them are to be "established by the superintendent."

FCPS has a regulation that outlines what must happen when the district receives a request from a resident. It says that the deputy superintendent will determine whether to form a review committee.

The district announced last week that it would delay the launch of the review committee, which was supposed to have its first meeting Thursday.

The committee won't begin meeting until the compliance board issues a ruling on the matter. The committee's first meeting is scheduled for March 2.

Once an entity responds to a complaint filed against it, the compliance board can usually issue a ruling within 30 days, Rachel Simmonsen, counsel to the compliance board, wrote in a Dec. 15 email.

The compliance board is an independent state entity whose three members are appointed by the governor.

Follow Jillian Atelsek on Twitter: @jillian_atelsek