An Act To Improve Communication between School Boards and Educators by Requiring Notice of Discussion of Labor Matters
Maine Legislature, Session 130, LD 0816
Committee: Education and Cultural Affairs
Sponsors: RAFFERTY
Amends: 1 MRSA §405, 1 MRSA §406

Legislative Document
No. 816
S.P. 185
In Senate, March 5, 2021
An Act To Improve Communication between School Boards and 
Educators by Requiring Notice of Discussion of Labor Matters
Reference to the Committee on Education and Cultural Affairs suggested and ordered 
printed.
DAREK M. GRANT
Secretary of the Senate
Presented by Senator RAFFERTY of York.
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:
Sec. 1.  1 MRSA §405, sub-§6, ¶D, as repealed and replaced by PL 1999, c. 144, 
§1, is amended to read:
D.  Discussion of labor contracts and proposals and meetings between a public agency 
and its negotiators.  The parties must be named before the body or agency may go into 
executive session.  Negotiations between the representatives of a public employer and 
public employees may be open to the public if both parties agree to conduct 
negotiations in open sessions, except that negotiations between a school board and 
representatives of public employees regarding personnel matters may not be open to 
the public;
Sec. 2.  1 MRSA §406, as amended by PL 1987, c. 477, §4, is further amended to 
read:
§406.  Public notice
Public notice shall must be given for all public proceedings as defined in section 402, 
if these proceedings are a meeting of a body or agency consisting of 3 or more persons. 
This notice shall must be given in ample time to allow public attendance and shall must be 
disseminated in a manner reasonably calculated to notify the general public in the 
jurisdiction served by the body or agency concerned. In the event of an emergency meeting, 
local representatives of the media shall must be notified of the meeting, whenever practical, 
the notification to include time and location, by the same or faster means used to notify the 
members of the agency conducting the public proceeding.  Notwithstanding Title 26, 
section 965, subsection 1, paragraph B, for a meeting between a school board and 
representatives of public employees that is requested by a representative of the employees, 
the meeting must occur at a regularly scheduled school board meeting and public notice 
must be given at least 10 days prior to the meeting.  If a representative of public employees 
makes a request for a meeting between the school board and representatives of the 
employees less than 10 days prior to a scheduled school board meeting, the meeting 
between members of a school board and representatives of the employees must be 
scheduled for the next regularly scheduled school board meeting.
SUMMARY
This bill requires that any meeting between a school board and representatives of public 
employees that is requested by representatives of the employees must occur at a regularly 
scheduled school board meeting and that public notice must be given at least 10 days prior 
to the school board meeting.  The bill also provides that negotiations between a school 
board and representatives of public employees regarding personnel matters may not be 
open to the public and must be held in executive session.  This is an exception to current 
law, which allows negotiations between the representatives of a public employer and public 
employees to be open to the public if both parties agree to conduct negotiations in open 
sessions.