Tuition Talks Illegal?

Two years of on-again, off-again talks are stalled again among the school districts in East Hampton Town over the contracts under which districts pay East Hampton to educate their middle and high school students.

Most of the school boards' discussions about tuition, or arguments as the case may be, have taken place in closed-door sessions. Members of the boards say they have been advised to meet privately by their attorneys. However, the executive director of the State Committee on Open Government said the law did not allow closed, or executive, sessions in this situation. He is expected to send the districts a written opinion soon at the request of The Star.

The talks involve contracts signed in 1992 by the Springs, Amagansett, Montauk, Wainscott, and Saga ponack School Districts with East Hampton.

Nothing Paid

East Hampton has been anxious to extend the agreements, most of which end in 1999, to June 2001 in anticipation of a $5.3-million expansion and renovation of its high school, which was approved last night by public referendum. Sagaponack and, to some extent, Sag Harbor, are the only districts outside the town that send some of their students to East Hampton schools.

At a meeting of the East Hampton School Board Tuesday night, it was reported that Sagaponack was the only district that had paid anything so far on this year's tuition bills. Board members noted that the first bills had gone out unusually late, on Oct. 31, and added that by Dec. 1 the district had received $89,000 in tuition, as compared to $600,000 last year.

In the past, in response to reporters' questions, members of several districts' boards have recounted tuition-related discussions held behind closed doors. Others have been tight-lipped, as members of the East Hampton School Board were after an executive session in June when tuition "came up suddenly," according to one member.

BOCES Plan

A major decision was made at that session - to hike tuition by 6 percent for this academic year.

An exception to the practice of keeping a lid on what has gone on at tuition meetings was an announcement in October by the Eastern Suffolk Board of Cooperative Educational Services of the provisions in a tuition agreement it had proposed.

The BOCES proposal found acceptance in East Hampton, but Springs outlined a counteroffer in a confidential letter to that district on Nov. 1, and Montauk and Amagansett voted to postpone their decisions until a reorganization study of the four districts is completed in the spring. The talks have been stalled ever since. The reorganization study is being done with an eye toward equalizing the costs of education among the town's school districts by consolidation or by establishing a central high school district.

Opposing Views

"It's preposterous" to suggest that we should "discuss money matters - what we should and should not propose" - in public, said Reginald Cornelia, the president of the Springs School Board, which is disputing the 6-percent hike. "It's just not a practicable way to do things."

Mr. Cornelia acknowledged that board members "talk about [tuition] over coffee" - though he did not specify where or whether a majority of board members was present. He had "no idea how many times we've discussed this in executive session."

The Open Meetings Law has eight provisions for closed, or executive, sessions. They include collective negotiations pursuant to the Civil Service Law, which governs teachers or custodial unions. The law also allows closed-door talks on proposed, pending, or current litigation - but not the possibility or mere "threat" of litigation.

"If meetings were closed every time lawsuits were threatened," said Robert Freeman of the state open government committee "there would be no point to the Open Meetings Law." The executive session can be used only to discuss specific litigation strategy, he added.

Attorneys' Blessings

William Silver, the Springs Superintendent, said that Susan Janece of Payne Wood & Littlejohn, a Bridgehampton and Melville law firm, had advised the board it "can do this in executive session." Dr. Silver said, however, that the board would "reconsider" if supplied with a written legal opinion to the contrary.

Of Mr. Freeman, Noel McStay, the East Hampton School Superintendent said, "He thinks everything should be open."

Polling An Issue

Sharon Bacon, the East Hampton Board president, said its tuition discussions in executive session had the blessing of Robert Sapir, the board's attorney, "ever since I've been here." During some sessions, Ms. Bacon said, Michael Tracey, the vice president, and Claudia Maietta, another board member, had reported on talks they had held with board members of other districts.

Mr. Tracey, a former board president, recalled that about a year ago the matter of discussing tuition in public came up. Since then, he said, board members have been reviewing various tuition proposals "disseminated through interoffice mail." The board's will is then determined by polling its members by phone, he said. Decisions reached by polling rather than at public meetings also are considered a violation of state law.

Mr. Sapir of the Melville firm of Cooper, Sapir & Cohen, explained that he had advised the board that their tuition discussions were "an exception" to the Open Meetings Law because it was a "real matter involving the real possibility of litigation."

He said both Springs and East Hampton formally agreed to "hold off filing suit" during negotiations.

"Ripe For Litigation"

In his opinion, "these discussions are actually 'settlement' discussions to try to resolve a legal matter," which he characterized as "ripe for litigation."

During Jack Perna's two-year tenure as Montauk School District Superintendent, tuition also has been discussed in executive session. "I don't know why," our attorney advised us to meet this way, said Mr. Perna this week, - "perhaps because it's a large amount of money in a contractual agreement." The board's attorney is Bill Mullen of Huntington.

In Amagansett, George Eichhorn, the School Board president since July 1, said he planned to "call Albany" to get the word firsthand that tuition talks have to be held in public. "Normally in the past," he acknowledged, such "talks took place in executive session."

Mr. Eichhorn was reluctant to make the change, saying, "We've never tried to cover anything, but anytime you have to talk about finances, it doesn't make sense to reveal your bargaining position."