The Denver Post: A new era of secrecy and cover-ups has infected Colorado school districts. Board members shield records from public scrutiny, hide important discussions from the public in executive sessions, and meet secretly one-on-one to cut deals via emails, text messages, and verbal agreements.

And in this climate of growing disregard for the Colorado Open Records Act and Colorado Open Meetings Law, lawmakers are considering a bill that would make it more difficult to challenge a school district that fails to properly disclose closed-door meeting topics. Public districts are already operating too much like private businesses; they don’t need encouragement from lawmakers too.

The $832,733 paid out to fired Douglas County Superintendent Cory Wise is the best possible case to be made for school board members to get their acts together and start acting like elected officials representing the public in a transparent and open manner. Taxpayers will foot this bill to cover school board members’ bad behavior.

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