Attorney General's Opinion 1979-80 #378

VIRGINIA FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT. EXECUTIVE MEETING NOT PERMITTED FOR DISCUSSION OF GENERAL PERSONNEL MATTERS. RECORDS OF SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT EXEMPT FROM REQUIRED DISCLOSURE.

August 13, 1979

The Honorable Virgil K. Goode, Jr.
Member, Senate of Virginia

79-80 378

You have asked my advice on two questions concerning the Virginia Freedom of Information Act (the "Act"):

1. whether a local school board can legally meet in executive session for discussion of a report, by the superintendent of schools, which assesses the order of priority among administrative positions in the school board's central administrative office; and

2. whether charts, lists of positions and other visual aids used by the superintendent in presenting the above-described report are records which are subject to required public disclosure.

The Act requires that all meetings of public bodies be public meetings except as otherwise specifically provided by law. Section 2.1-344(a)(1) of the Act allows public bodies to discuss certain personnel matters in executive meetings, including "[d]iscussion or consideration of employment assignment, appointment, promotion, performance, demotion, salaries, disciplining or resignation of public officers, appointees or employees of any public body...." The exception to the open meeting rule provided by §2.1-344(a)(1) allows private discussion of personnel matters involving individual employees. The report of the superintendent which you describe does not, however, involve evaluation of the performance of school board administrative employees, but instead evaluates the relative importance of the positions themselves. I conclude that the subject matter of the superintendent's report does not fall within the scope of §2.1-344(a)(1) or any other provision authorizing executive meetings. The school board may not, therefore, meet in executive session for receipt of or discussion of the superintendent's report. Any discussion of the performance of indentifiable individual employees which might arise during discussion of the report, however, may be the subject of a properly called executive meeting. See §2.1-344(a)(1).

The charts, lists and other visual aids used by the superintendent in presenting his report to the school board are clearly "official records" of the superintendent. See §2.1-341(b). Your letter indicates that these records have at all times remained in the possession of the superintendent and were not turned over to the school board when the report was presented. Section 2.1-342(b)(4) provides an exemption from required public disclosure for the "[m]emoranda, working papers and correspondence..." held by the chief executive officer of any political subdivision of the State. The superintendent of schools for a local school board is, of course, the chief executive officer of a political subdivision. I, therefore, conclude that the records in question are exempt from public access requirements of the Act. See §2.1-342(b)(4).