Thompson School District board moves into executive session to set strategy for negotiations with teachers' association

The Thompson School District R-2J Board of Education on Wednesday voted to enter an executive session to develop strategy and instruct negotiators for negotiations with the Thompson Education Association, citing Colorado statute CRS 24-6-402(4)(e).

Board member Cam announced the agenda item and said, "The board may proceed into executive session pursuant to CRS section 24-6-402(4)(e) for the purpose of developing the strategy and instructing negotiators of the district for negotiations with Thompson Education Association. I would take a motion to move into that." The motion was made and recorded on the roll call, and the board moved into executive session.

The roll call recorded affirmative votes from School Board member Stu Boyd, School Board member Denise Chapman, School Board member Barbara Cruz and School Board member Nancy Rumpel. School Board members Amy Doran, Dawn Kirk and Alexander Lessum were recorded as not present for the vote; district staff said those members were still en route. The motion passed on a 4-0 recorded vote with three members absent.

District staff who the board said would attend the executive session included Dr. Bill Sievers, Bob Ebersol and Dr. Schafer. Meeting officers indicated four board members would participate in the closed meeting and that the remaining trustees were expected to arrive later. The board said it would reconvene the regular meeting at 6:00 p.m. after the executive session.

The board cited CRS 24-6-402(4)(e), the Colorado statute authorizing certain executive sessions for the purpose of instructing negotiators, as the legal basis for closing the meeting to the public.

No substantive public discussion or additional motions about the negotiations were recorded in the publicly available transcript excerpt.