The Kansas Board of Regents voted unanimously to recess into an executive session to prepare one or more evaluations of the university system’s chief executive, saying the meeting was necessary to protect the privacy of individual board employees.

The motion, read aloud by the board president, specified the session’s subject as “personnel matters of nonelected personnel” and named participants who would aid the discussion: members of the Kansas Board of Regents, the board president, CEO Blake Flanders and general counsel John Urie. The president said the session should last about 15 minutes and set the open meeting to resume at 9:47 a.m. The board later extended the executive session by five minutes, to about 9:55 a.m.

“I move that the Board of Regents recess into executive session to discuss personnel matters of nonelected personnel. The subject of this executive session is preparation for 1 or more CEO evaluations, and the purpose is to protect the privacy of the individual board employees involved. This session should last approximately, and, guys, I’m gonna start us at 15 minutes,” the board president said when making the motion. After a second, the motion carried unanimously.

Board members and staff dealt with connectivity issues as they moved to the separate executive-session Zoom link. At one point a participant noted they were in the wrong meeting and staff said they would email the correct link to Regent Wolf. The board clerk or staff member identified as Becky was asked to email the correct link.

Later in the session, the board president moved to extend the executive session by five minutes “to adjourn at 09:55,” and the board approved the extension by unanimous voice vote. When the executive-session portion concluded and the public meeting reconvened briefly, the president moved to adjourn the special meeting; that motion also passed unanimously.

The meeting record shows Regent Mendoza would not be able to attend the special session and that Regent Johnston did join. The board confirmed a quorum after five members were connected before voting to enter executive session. The meeting included no public discussion of the evaluation’s substance in the open session, and no final evaluation documents or substantive personnel findings were disclosed in the recorded remarks.

The session’s actions were procedural: the board recessed into executive session for CEO-evaluation preparation, extended that session by five minutes, and then adjourned the special meeting. The board cited privacy for individual employees as the reason for using the closed session; no statutes, ordinances or other legal citations were referenced in the recorded remarks.