Imagine, if you will, a public school, supported by taxpayer dollars, claiming that it’s a private corporation and doesn’t have to comply with the state’s public records law. It is absurd on the face of it. Yet that’s what the Mystic Valley Regional Charter School is arguing in a case before the Supreme Judicial Court.
According to an account by Jennifer Smith in CommonWealth Beacon, at least two of the justices appeared to be unimpressed by the Malden-based school’s claims when the case was argued at a recent hearing.
“You’re in real trouble,” Justice Scott Kafker told Charles Waters, a lawyer for the school, explaining, “It quacks like a duck, it waddles like a duck, it paddles like a duck.” Added Justice Dalia Wendlandt:
I understand charter schools were created to be independent in certain ways, to foster innovation in education and have the ability to do that in a way that the average public school does not. Good. But that doesn’t carry you to the argument that they’re not subject to the public record law.
At issue are some 10 instances in which public records were sought by a Facebook-based local news organization called the Malden News Network, Commonwealth Transparency and Malden mayoral candidate Lissette Alvarado. Smith reports that the requested information includes “corporate statements, contracts, ledgers, lease records, conflict of interest disclosures filed by board members, payments made to employees or professional services, and confidentiality and non-disclosure agreements.”
The case dates back to mid-2023, when state Attorney General Andrea Campbell filed a legal action against the school to force it to comply with the public records law. For fighting so stubbornly to conduct the public’s business behind closed doors, the Mystic Valley school has earned a New England Muzzle Award — its second. In 2017, I awarded a Muzzle to the school for discriminating against Black students by banning long braids and dreads. In 2022, the school sent a female Muslim student home because she was wearing a hijab in violation of the student dress code.
Despite the school’s reputation for academic excellence, there is clearly a culture problem that needs to be addressed.
According to Smith’s report in CommonWealth Beacon, Mystic Valley is claiming that it’s not subject to the public records law because “Charter schools, in their view, are public schools that are structured and treated in some ways more like corporations.” Among those disagreeing is the Massachusetts Charter Public School Association. Then again, Mystic Valley is one of just three charter schools that are not members of that organization.
In an editorial (sub. req.) calling for the SJC to rule against Mystic Valley, The Boston Globe observes that the school has already lost in decisions rendered by the state supervisor of records, the attorney general and a Superior Court judge. The editorial concludes: “Charter schools have been a great asset to Massachusetts families; indeed, Mystic Valley has been ranked as one of the best schools in the state. But that’s not the issue here. The issue is that the public has a right to know how their tax dollars are being spent.”
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This sounds like the argument that the Levi Heywood Memorial Library in Gardner, MA used to deny me access to library trustees’ meetings both when I was a reporter for the Gardner News and as a retired citizen of the city.
Last spring Mayor Michael Nicholson said during his weekly interview with Steve Wendell on WGAW 1340 Radio that the trustees’ meetings are open to the public. The city clerk, however, does not receive or post notices of trustee’s meetings.
I wrote the mayor asking him why the meetings are not posted and I was not allowed to attend meetings. He never answered me, despite multiple visits to his office seeking answers.
It would seem that if the city is paying nearly a million dollars a year to pay salaries and operate the library, taxpayers should be able to see how their money is spent.
One of the trustees told me the meetings are not open to the public and that the trustees are not a public body because the library is a private entity. He said the Commonwealth’s Anti-aid Amendment allows the city to fund the private entity that operates the free public library.
Ed Bilodeau
Gardner