Pub. 8 2018-2019 Issue 2

14 The Utah Open and Public Meetings Act Understanding OPMA – U tah’s Open and Public Meetings Act (OPMA) sets the standard and expectation that the pub- lic’s business must be conducted in public. Impactful open meetings may appear chal- lenging for board members but they are a powerful way to engage the school commu- nity in the discussions and decision-making process. This strengthens the school commu- nity. Board members hear both expressions of concern and support for concepts and plans, reducing the possibility of decisions being made that are not in the best inter- est of the school community. Your charter school board is required by law to follow the OPMA requirements. We recommend the following practices: • Inform the public of what you plan to do. Posting notification of meeting (aka “noticing a meeting”) and posting reasonably specific agendas prior to meetings, allows interested members of the public to determine what topics will be discussed and what potential action may be considered. The Utah Public Meeting Notice Website (PMN) at pmn.utah. gov provides a valuable tool for community members to track meetings of interest to them. BY STATE AUDITOR JOHN DOUGALL