Transparency News, 8/31/21
Tuesday
August 31, 2021
August 31, 2021
state & local news stories
VCOG's annual report for 2021 is posted on our website. It’s a colorful, 4-page quick-hit look at our work since last summer: our advocacy at the General Assembly, our work at the FOIA Council, our podcasts and videos, our conference, and a tribute to VCOG’s founding director.
Read the report here
With a meeting and public hearing scheduled next week to review details of Martinsville’s plan to revert to a town in Henry County, there are signs that the Martinsville City School Board is looking for a way to stall the process and possibly stop the merger of school districts altogether. Reversion would merge many government offices, including courts, services and the two school districts, which could mean that some schools could be closed and attendance zones redefined. But MCPS has scheduled a special meeting in closed session at the school board office at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday “for discussion and consultation with legal counsel and briefings by staff members, attorneys or consultants pertaining to actual or probable litigation,” the agenda states. The issue at hand could be a portion of a state statute that says merger of school districts requires a vote of school boards, which has not occurred so far during a process that began late in 2019.
Martinsville Bulletin
Read the report here
With a meeting and public hearing scheduled next week to review details of Martinsville’s plan to revert to a town in Henry County, there are signs that the Martinsville City School Board is looking for a way to stall the process and possibly stop the merger of school districts altogether. Reversion would merge many government offices, including courts, services and the two school districts, which could mean that some schools could be closed and attendance zones redefined. But MCPS has scheduled a special meeting in closed session at the school board office at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday “for discussion and consultation with legal counsel and briefings by staff members, attorneys or consultants pertaining to actual or probable litigation,” the agenda states. The issue at hand could be a portion of a state statute that says merger of school districts requires a vote of school boards, which has not occurred so far during a process that began late in 2019.
Martinsville Bulletin
stories from around the country
Two state government websites in Georgia recently stopped posting updates on COVID-19 cases in prisons and long-term care facilities, just as the dangerous delta variant was taking hold. Data has been disappearing recently in other states as well. Florida, for example, now reports COVID-19 cases, deaths and hospitalizations once a week, instead of daily, as before. Both states, along with the rest of the South, are battling high infection rates. Public health experts are voicing concern about the pullback of COVID-19 information. Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, called the trend “not good for government and the public” because it gives the appearance of governments “hiding stuff.”
Governing
Governing
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