Attorney General’s office says school district had right to keep review of $50 million iPad/Macbook program closed to press

The Kansas Attorney General’s Office on Wednesday issued an opinion saying that the Shawnee Mission School District did not violate the Kansas Open Meetings Act when it barred the Shawnee Mission Post from observing a meeting of its Digital Learning Task Force last year.
The publication filed a formal complaint against the district after its communications office denied a request to attend and report on a meeting of the group charged with reviewing implementation of the district’s $50 million-plus 1:1 technology initiative, which provides an iPad or Macbook to every student K-12.
In a letter outlining the decision, Assistant Attorney General Lisa Mendoza said the office’s open government enforcement unit had determined that the Digital Learning Task Force created by Superintendent Mike Fulton was merely an advisory group and did not fit the definition of the type of “subordinate group” subject to the state’s open meetings law.
(Read more: Shawnee Mission Post)