Letter to the Editor:
I am a longtime Burbank resident and parent of two Burroughs graduates who went through all 13 years in BUSD schools. As someone who has served on multiple boards in Burbank and at my University, I am familiar with the need for accurate minutes to serve as an official record of actions taken at a meeting.
The single set of minutes approved at the Board of Education meeting on Monday, August 14, 2025 was from February 1, 2024, eighteen months ago.
Prior to that, the most recent minutes were presented on May 1, 2025 and were from January 18, 2024, yet those submitted minutes still don’t appear on Granicus where the public can view them.
Nearly 18 months’ worth of meeting minutes are still missing from board agendas. It is a legal and ethical issue that there is no record of the decisions of Burbank’s BOE for all of 2024 and 2025.
California’s Brown Act and Education Code 35163 mandates that minutes be kept of public school board meetings. This requirement is essential to maintaining transparency and accountability in decision-making processes.
Board Policy “9322: Agenda/Meeting Materials” makes it the President’s responsibility to ensure meeting minutes are included in agendas. Board Policy 9123 tasks the Clerk with signing minutes after approval. While this Board has continually expressed their betrayal by Ms. Tabet, they must take accountability for their own actions.
Since December 2024, there have been 18 meetings but only 5 sets of minutes have been approved, despite the board spending $93,000 on a six-month contract to catch up on the 26 missing sets. As of today, there are now 40 missing sets of minutes.
The public deserves a complete and timely legal record. Board Members have the responsibility as stewards of taxpayer dollars, to demonstrate accountability, diligent fiscal management, and compliance with the law. With an active investigation into one Board Member’s questionable conduct, it is all the more critical that this legal requirement be fulfilled.
I appreciate Member Pontzer Kamkar’s request of staff at Monday’s meeting that “all minutes be completed within the next 60 days” and her expectation that “future minutes don’t lag more than one month behind.”
That commitment is long overdue. Tax payers in our city deserve better. Our dedicated teachers and staff deserve better. And most importantly, Burbank students deserve better.
Suzanne Weerts
Education Advocate and Former BUSD Parent
