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Resident alleges board altered closed‑session minutes, cites Brown Act concerns and procedural irregularities
Summary
A resident attending the Feb. 11 meeting accused the district of removing ratified closed‑session minutes from the website, presenting multiple versions and failing to follow grievance appeal procedures; she alleged a staff member locked the door during a closed session, calling it a Brown Act violation.
Megan Kaiser told the South Pasadena Unified School District board on Feb. 11 that minutes from the board’s Nov. 19 closed‑session meeting had been removed from the district agenda and website and that the board later presented multiple, differing versions of those minutes for ratification.
Kaiser said she had emailed board members before the Feb. 11 meeting with digital documentation showing the Jan. 14 version of the Nov. 19 minutes was incorrect and told the board she could prove the version presented that night was not truthful. Kaiser said she had the ratified Nov. 19 minutes and that the version approved at a subsequent meeting had disappeared from the district website on Jan. 14.
Kaiser said the district also failed to follow the board’s grievance and appeal procedures, alleging a lack of notice and an appeal hearing held on Nov. 12 “without my knowledge or presence.” She said during the Nov. 19 proceedings she was the only member of the public in the boardroom and that other witnesses and district staff named in the grievance had not been present. Kaiser also said a board staff member, identified in the meeting as “Ms. Carol,” locked the main boardroom door at 6:15 p.m. and later was told to remove Kaiser when the closed‑door session began — an action Kaiser said admitted the board did not follow its own policies and amounted to a Brown Act violation.
Kaiser urged greater transparency and said the changes to the minutes undermine the integrity of the record. Board members thanked her for speaking; the board did not take action at the meeting in response to her claims. Kaiser said she has digital evidence she said would prove the record presented that evening was not truthful.
