The De Soto USD 232 Board of Education called a special meeting Friday, Sept. 11, to hold three closed-door sessions on bargaining negotiations and legal matters.

Board President Brandi Jonasson convened the meeting at 5 p.m. at the district's administrative office at 35200 W. 91st St. in De Soto. The entire 65-minute meeting was spent in executive session, and no public action was taken before Jonasson adjourned at 6:05 p.m.

The board's first executive session focused on bargaining unit negotiations. Superintendent Cory Gibson, Deputy Chief of Staff and Communications Alvie Cater, and attorney Jessica Bernard of the law firm Guin-Mundorf joined board members behind closed doors. The Kansas Open Meetings Act, known as KOMA, allows school boards to close meetings for employer-employee negotiations.

That session ran past its scheduled 15 minutes. Jonasson moved to extend it 10 minutes, and board member Lucy Rumsey-DeWitt seconded.

The meeting minutes do not name which bargaining unit is involved. The De Soto Teachers' Association represents the district's teachers, but the minutes do not specify which unit is at the table.

A second executive session began at 5:27 p.m. for 25 minutes of attorney-client consultation between the board, Gibson and Bernard. A third, lasting 10 minutes, covered non-elected personnel matters under KOMA's privacy exception. Gibson and Bernard were present for both.

Board members Ashley Spaulding, Calley Malloy, Stephanie Makalous and Rumsey-DeWitt each seconded one of the four motions Jonasson made during the meeting.

No details about the substance of the negotiations or the status of any current agreement have been made public. The board took no votes on bargaining proposals or personnel actions in open session.