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The Lafourche Parish School Board created a policy that forms a committee to vet what is discussed in their meetings.

The policy requires all items submitted for discussion be turned in to the superintendent's office five days before the meeting. It then goes before a three-person Executive Ad Hoc Committee chosen by the School Board President Tina Babin. Those three members then vote whether the item goes before the full board or not. The policy passed Tuesday.

According to Lafourche Parish Superintendent Jarod Martin, the committee is a recreation of an older policy the school board had known as the advisory committee. It dissolved when the school board reduced in members from a 15-member board to nine. He said this new three-person committee would fulfill the same purpose as the old board and would be pulled together as needed.

"In practice, it changes nothing for how our board has operated for many years," Martin said. "It provides a codified avenue for agenda items to be added to the agenda."

Both Martin and Babin were unsure if the committee would be subject to open meeting law requirements. Open meetings would allow the public to see what items were approved and denied for discussion.

Asked if they would be open to the public, Babin said, "I would prefer to have a word from the attorney before committing to an answer."

The three members would be selected from the school board and Babin said she would choose them based on who posed the item and who could best discuss it. Because the committee is formed as needed, the members can change each time it is formed.

Requirements for an item to be put on the agenda are whether it applies to education, if it has an informational purpose, if another policy or law already applies to it, and if it should instead be sent to a committee for discussion before going to the full board.

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This process appears at least to one member as a method for censoring unwanted topics from discussion. School board member Jamie Marlbrough said elected officials shouldn't have their items vetted by a committee, they were already vetted by voters.

Marlbrough argues that if members of their constituency constantly have their voice struck down by that committee then a board member should have the power to place it on the agenda if they feel it important enough.

By having the item discussed the board can inform the public, and the constituents will feel like their concerns aren't being ignored. She said what this committee creates is a mechanism to silence board members the majority doesn't agree with.

"It's taking more and more power away from elected officials," she said.

The school board has an exit ramp if they feel items denied are worthy of discussion but aren't making it to the meetings. With a two-thirds vote, the board can place an item on the agenda opposing the committee, but Marlbrough said that's unlikely since the committee is already three members of the nine-member board.

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School Board begins vetting discussion items, member fears ... - Daily Comet