The Woodford County Public Schools fell into a common trap.

https://ag.ky.gov/Priorities/Government-Transparency/orom/2020/20-OMD-0…

The open meetings law restricts closed session discussions to only those topics "publicly announced prior to convening the closed session."

https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/statute.aspx?id=23045

Kentucky's laws requires closed session "preliminary discussions relating to the evaluation of the superintendent by the board or between the board and the superintendent."

https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/statute.aspx?id=45613

The school board's closed session was therefore proper under the open meetings exception for "[m]eetings which federal or state law specifically require to be conducted in privacy."

https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/statute.aspx?id=48229

But because the board also discussed the superintendent's appointment to a steering committee, it exceeded the permissible scope of the closed session by discussing a topic not "publicly announced prior to convening the closed session."

There are several ways in which the public can detect a violation based on the discussion of topics in closed session not previously announced in open session.

In this case, the person who filed the complaint is a member of the school board. She personally observed the discussion of the superintendent's appointment to the steering committee and thereafter filed a complaint against the board she serves.

In other cases, a discussion of topics in closed session that were not previously announced in open session can be inferred from the action taken — without previous public discussion — when the agency returns to open session.

And even where the person filing the complaint is not an agency member, a member may feel bound to report the violation to a non-member in the hope of a successful legal challenge that discourages future illegal action.

The briefest discussion of unannounced topics in closed session can, as here, result in a decision that the public agency violated the open meetings law.