The attached complaint was submitted on December 18, 2019 to the Open Meetings Act (OMA) Compliance Board, detailing recurring OMA violations via electronic communications between BOE members over the past year . The BOE has until January 17, 2020 to respond to this complaint.

These apparent violations demonstrate that the Board has been repeatedly violating the Open Meetings Act via electronic communication prior to them significantly and spectacularly committing an OMA viola tion during the final vote on this year’s school redistricting plan at their November 21, 2019 meeting.

These violations have occurred under the leadership of Chair Mavis Ellis, despite the fact that she completed the required Open Meetings Act training on approximately January 25, 2018 (as detailed here: she should clearly know the rules regarding this process.

In a statement made at the HCPSS Board of Education meeting on December 17, 2019 , Chair Ellis repeatedly emphasized that the Board did not intend to violate the Open Meetings Act —- that it was not done so willingly.

However, with evidence that the Board has been frequently disregarding these Open Meetings Act rules via email prior to the apparent violation during the meeting on November 21st, it is hard to believe that the violation did not occur willingly, or at least with willful neglect. Instead of a one-time mistake, this appears to be a recurring willful neglect for the rules established in the Open Meetings Act by Chair Ellis and other members of the Board. (as detailed here: https://go.boarddocs.com/mabe/hcpssmd/Board.nsf/files/AWFMA9596F5A/$file/03%2008%202018%20OMA%20Designation%20BR.pdf ), andIn a statement made at the HCPSS Board of Education meeting on December 17, 2019 ,prior to the apparent violation during the meeting on November 21st,Instead of a one-time mistake,

Perhaps this topic will be on the agenda for the closed session at the January 7, 2020 BOE meeting.

These recurring OMA violations raise a serious question:

With such willful neglect for the rules, why did Mavis Ellis earn four votes towards retaining her position as Chair of the BOE for another year and refuse to relinquish this position after repeated voting sessions ending in 4-4 ties?

Here is the evidence submitted for Allegation 1 in this complaint, with links to the MPIA responses that contain the evidence of email OMA violations:

Evidence: The Howard County Public School System (HCPSS) provides an online database of all Maryland Public Information Act (MPIA) requests and responses.

• MPIA 2019-174 – On April 22, 2019, at least 4 Board members vote to approve altered testimony before the County Council, which is not one of the exemptions for conducting a public meeting per Maryland General Provisions §3–305 https://mpia.hcpss.org/sites/default/files/2019-05/MPIA%202019-174%20Responsive%20Emails%20btwn%20BMs_0.pdf

• MPIA 2019-08 – On July 28, 2019, a quorum of Board members voted in closed meeting (over email) regarding support of a bill before the County Council. “A majority agreed via email on submitting it” was one of the statements in these emails. https://mpia.hcpss.org/sites/default/files/2019-08/MPIA%202020-037%20Responsive%20Email%20REDACTED.pdf