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)

The 200 new body cameras Overland Park police have used since November have worked so well the city council may buy another 58 so all of its officers can use them.
The council’s Public Safety Committee gave its blessing to the purchase of the new cameras Wednesday night, along with a new bomb truck.
Only uniformed officers have used the cameras to date. Buying a second batch would allow every commissioned officer access to a camera, said Captain Kyle Livengood. That way an officer working overtime at an event or directing traffic could also be using a body cam.
(Read more: Shawnee Mission Post)