Committee may have inadvertently violated open meeting act
during renaming
Gilroy– The list of possible names for the new Las Animas School has been whittled down to four, but the advisory group tasked with choosing a final candidate from dozens of suggestions may have violated board policy and state open meeting laws in the process.
Gilroy Unified School District Superintendent Edwin Diaz, members of the GUSD board of trustees and members of the naming committee, comprised of district staff and residents, are unclear whether the committee should have followed open meeting laws spelled out in the state’s Ralph M. Brown Act, which typically requires committees formed by school boards and other legislative bodies to operate in public view.
“They must post agendas, allow for public participation – everything the school board would do,” said Rich McKee, president of Californians Aware, a non-profit First Amendment rights watchdog group. “They have to create minutes saying when they convened, where, what actions were taken and the vote of each member. In this instance, there isn’t a gray area.”
Though Diaz said he’d like to review the Brown Act and board policy with school district attorneys before commenting, he did say any violation of the Brown Act would be his “oversight” because he would have been the person to explain the law to the committee.
School board policy 7310 calls for naming committees to be appointed by the school board, a legislative body. The Brown Act requires such legislatively-appointed committees to follow open meeting laws, making their records public. Yet the committee decided to keep the ever-changing lists of names and discussions secret until making the final recommendation.
“We talked about it collectively and we decided to not release the (list),” said Rob Mendiola, GUSD facilities director and member of the committee in a story published Oct. 7. “So, I think we’re better off not to list the names at this point. We’re making progress and that’s as much as we should say.”
Mendiola and the committee chair, 17-year-old Gilroy High School student Bryan Walker, also gave conflicting information about how many times the committee met. Walker said he thought the group met two or three times after the public meeting, though Mendiola said he thought they met six or seven times.
The committee sent its final recommendation of four names to Diaz Tuesday afternoon, and it’s now Diaz’s responsibility to present the recommendations to the school board. Only after sending the short list to Diaz would Mendiola release the original list of name possibilities and the four final recommendations to the Dispatch. He said he would type up his meeting notes for presentation to the school board, which would help explain the committee’s deliberation process. As of Tuesday morning, trustees had not seen any of the suggested names for the new facility slated to open in fall 2007.
Trustees Tom Bundros and Jim Rogers said updates on the name committee have been brief and broad, mostly stating that the committee had met, progress was being made, and the committee planned to meet again for further discussion.
Mendiola and committee member Ardy Ghoreishi both said they didn’t want to release any lists of names until deliberations were complete because they didn’t want the issue confused by changing lists of names and public controversy over what names had been taken out of the running.
“The public had the opportunity to submit names, and then it was the committee’s job to narrow down the names,” said Walker, who is also the student representative to the school board. “Our job was not to make the public aware of all the happenings of the committee. Our job was strictly about narrowing down names and making a recommendation.”
Once Diaz makes the presentation to the school board, the public will again be invited to offer their thoughts on the future name of the facility. The board will make the final decision on the name.
Four proposed names
Pleasant Valley: Name of this area before Gilroy.
Las Animas: Name of Spanish land grant area sits on.
TJ Owens: TJ Owens was a Gilroy educator.
Dale Connell: Dale Connell is a benefactor of the district and an educator.
List of names nominated by public for the new school building
1. Peter Allemand
2. Jeramy Alan Ailes
3. James Patrick Boyd
4. Dale Connell
5. Reginald B. Desiderio
6. Floyd Emerson
7. Charles Samuel Gubser
8. Gubser-Desiderio Elementary
9. Henry Miller
10. TJ Owens
11. Alvin Painter
12. Roosevelt
13. Massey Thomas
14. Zenichiro Uchida
15. Mary Alabama Wright VanSchaick
16. Las Animas
17. Christmas Hill Elementary
18. Greenfield
19. Homestead Elementary
20. Pleasant Valley Elementary School
21. San Ysidro
22. Bright Star Elementary
23. Estrella Brillante Elementary
24. Loma Vista Elementary
25. Hill View Elementary
26. Ambición Elementary
27. Champion Elementary
28. Vista Montaña Elementary
29. Uvas Park Elementary
30. Parkview Elementary
31. Visionary Elementary
32. Visionario Elementary
33. Pioneer Elementary
34. Pionero Elementary
35. New Start Elementary
36. Nuevo Comienzo Elementary
37. Inspiration Elementary
38. Inspiración Elementary
39. Aprendiendo Elementary
40. Empollando Elementary
41. Orgullo Elementary
42. Gilroy Rising Star Academy
43. Greenfield Rising Star Academy
44. Loma Linda
