Mount Vernon City School District board enters executive session, announces it will not return to public meeting

The Mount Vernon City School District board met in a special session at 6:30 p.m. Monday, June 9, and voted to go into an executive session to discuss pending litigation and personnel matters, then announced it would not return to open session.

President Saunders asked the board for a motion to move into closed session "for the purpose of discussing pending litigation, appointment, employment, demotion, discipline, suspension, dismissal, or removal of a particular personnel matter, and to receive legal advice on a pending matter," and the motion was made and seconded. A voice vote was taken and the motion carried.

The board then entered executive session. At the close of the proceedings a speaker announced, "We shall not be returning," indicating the board did not intend to reconvene an open meeting that night. No details of the topics discussed in executive session were disclosed in the public record.

The special meeting opened with a roll call and an announcement that a quorum was present. Trustees McDonough, Maribel, Mitchell and Middleton were recorded as present; Vice President Kelly and President Saunders were also present. Several other trustee names were called during roll call but the transcript did not clearly record their presence as "present." The meeting transcript does not specify who made the motion or who seconded it, nor does it provide a roll-call vote tally beyond a voice vote of "Aye."

Because the items identified for executive session relate to pending litigation and personnel matters, the board did not provide additional public details. The board’s statutory basis for closing the meeting was not cited on the public record in the transcript provided.