WRAL.com: Court considers legality of tickets for school board meetings

From WRAL.com (2/24/11): The North Carolina Court of Appeals heard arguments Thursday about a ticket policy established last year by the Wake County Board of Education.

A group of parents and citizens filed suit in May saying that, by requiring tickets to its March 23 meeting, the school board violated a state law that requires public meetings be open.

Citing fire-safety concerns and complaints, the board distributed tickets to the public in advance of its March 23 meeting. The agenda that day featured a controversial vote to move forward with a plan to assign children to schools closer to their homes, and move away from a decade-old policy of busing students so schools across the district are diverse.

Crowds of people both in favor of the policy change and opposed to it had crowded previous meetings at which the issue was discussed.

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