Choice Foundation, the charter school board that oversees McDonogh 42 Elementary Charter School, Lafayette Academy Charter School and Esperanza Charter School, violated the state’s open meetings law Tuesday.

The board failed to provide public notice about the change of date for a meeting originally set for Wednesday, Aug. 28.

During the meeting, which occurred Aug. 27, the board re-elected 14 members and added a new member, according to board chairman James Huger.

A reporter for The Lens discovered the meeting had been moved when calling to confirm the meeting the morning of the Aug. 28. The meeting had already occurred by that point, a school official told The Lens.

“I apologize for that – we had to move the meeting due to people’s schedules,” Huger said.

While there is nothing illegal about changing the date of a board meeting, the charter organization failed to provide proper notice that the meeting date had been changed.

The school could not provide a copy of the public notice of the change, a document the board is required to publicly post within 24 hours of any meeting that has been moved to a different day or time, when The Lens requested it on Wednesday morning.

“It appears that the administration did not change the posting,” Huger wrote in an email.

Moreover, the board did not contact The Lens with a notice that the meeting had been changed, even though The Lens had asked for such notifications.

The board is required to notify the media, if the media has made a request, according to R.S. 42.19.

The Lens has emails dating back to April 2011 asking that the news organization be notified of any public meetings that Choice Foundation schedules.

“We dropped the ball and we’re going to fix that,” Huger said.

State law provides a variety of remedies for actions taken in violation of the open meetings law.

Moving forward, the organization said it would be better about notifying the media of any changes in dates.

Choice Foundation has appointed a media liaison to deal with future requests and avoid miscommunications in the future, Huger added.

“We fully want to work with your organization, we fully respect sunshine laws and will follow them,” Huger wrote in an email.

Margo Phelps was newly elected, and Anthony Carter, Dewana Hill, Don Beery, Asher Friend, Fritz Gomila, Hans Jonassen, Janet Bean, Kevin Kane, Laura Sillars, Kate Werner, Pierre Connor, Robert Evans, Wendy Lodrig and William Goliwas were re-elected, Huger confirmed.