Roll Call required at board meeting

More than once in the past 2-3 years I have urged the school board to call the roll at board meetings. Why is this important?

It is essential for a public body to be certain who was present and who was not. The main reason is to confirm that a quorum was present. For the Richland 2 School Board, that's five members to be present. And it should be five legitimate members.

Immediately after calling the meeting to order, the chair should direct the Secretary to call the roll by name. If a member is attending by telephone, that should be so stated. Then announce whether a quorum is present. If a quorum is present, then the chair can proceed with the business on the agenda.

For some unknown reason, the board entertains a motion to leave executive session aftet they have returned to the main meeting room. South Carolina law allows the executive session to decide to return to public session.

SECTION 30-4-70. Meetings which may be closed; procedure; circumvention of chapter; disruption of meeting; executive sessions of General Assembly.

(b) ... No action may be taken in executive session except to (a) adjourn or (b) return to public session." 

Once the board returns to public session, the correct motion would be to re-convene (after the executive session). Richland 2 school board never does that. 

What they currently do is vote to leave executive session. They never vote to re-convene.

When the board does re-convene, roll call should be taken again.

Why should they do that? Simple. To comply with State law. When they had the consultant come in for two Executive Coaching and Parliamentary Procedures training, that should have been explained to the board. It wasn't.

SECTION 30-4-90. Minutes of meetings of public bodies.

(a) All public bodies shall keep written minutes of all of their public meetings. Such minutes shall include but need not be limited to:

(1) The date, time and place of the meeting.

(2) The members of the public body recorded as either present or absent.

The Minutes do state who was present and who was not; HOWEVER, the members were never recorded as present or absent during the meeting. The recording secretary (not the Secretary) notes who was there. Because there was no roll call, no "record" was made at the time who was present.

Thus, at every meeting the board approves Minutes that are incorrect.

If a member departs before the end of the meeting, the chair should immediately announce who left and at what (correct) time. If that member was attending by phone, it's even more important. The member on the phone should state that s/he is leaving, so that the chair can announce the departure and time. That departure could affect whether the meeting can legally continue.