MADISON, Wis. — A conservative public interest law firm has accused an Appleton Area School District committee of meeting behind closed doors to determine what books belonged in a ninth-grade reading curriculum.
The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty mailed a complaint Friday to the state Justice Department and the Outagamie County district attorney. It alleges the committee met in closed meetings in 2011 and 2012 in violation of Wisconsin's open meetings law, raising questions about how it arrived at its selections.
A DOJ spokeswoman says the agency will review the complaint. The district attorney didn't immediately return a message.
The school district's chief academic officer says the committee needed to meet privately to facilitate candid discussion. He says the public had chances to offer input before the school board adopted the recommendations.
