Opinion ID: 1929169
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Rights of School Board Members

Text: School board members are charged with authority to regulate the affairs of the district. Iowa Code § 274.7. Members of the school board are granted policy making power and to adequately exercise that power, we hold that they generally should be allowed access to both public and private records that are necessary for the proper discharge of their duties. See generally Iowa Code ch. 279. We agree that members of the Board of Education occupy a fiduciary position and are under a duty to make detailed inquiry into any matter which appears to be wrong. Lane v. Blair, 162 W.Va. 281, 250 S.E.2d 124, 126 (1978). This duty necessarily implies that school board members should have access to records and documents of the district, subject to the legal constraints of chapter 22, in order to give effect to the authority granted them by statute. Gabrilson urges us to find that any member of a governing body has an inherent right to access public and confidential records. But we need not make such a broad determination. In the instant case, the duties uniquely charged to a school board put its members in a lawful position to review the assessment, subject to the confidentiality provisions of chapter 22. This does not mean, however, that her access to the records and what she may do with them is without limitation. Although Gabrilson is free to examine the assessment herself, the district court has properly enjoined her under section 22.7(19) from making its content public, and she is bound by that order irrespective of her status as a school board member.