The Washington Times-Herald did not receive 48 hours notification of a special Washington School Board meeting Thursday night due to what Superintendent Bruce Hatton said was an oversight.

Indiana Code 5-14-1.5-5 states that at least 48 hours before a meeting, a governing body of a public agency must give notice to the public and particularly to the news media that request such a notice in writing prior to Jan. 1. The Times-Herald delivered such a letter for 2008 to the school on Dec. 31, 2007, but not informed about Thursday’s meeting until a few hours prior to the meeting.

After the meeting, where the board hired Gretchen Miles as girls basketball coach, Hatton said he intended to deliver the special meeting notice to the newspaper after the selection committee decided their recommendation on Monday, but he forgot to do it.

“It was a mistake on my part,” he said.

The only other people attending the meeting besides school officials and Miles were two newly-elected school board members who said they learned about the meeting through a phone call.

School Board President Gary Williams pointed out that a notice was posted at the superintendent’s office 48 hours before the meeting.

“I don’t take the Times-Herald because I don’t think it’s worth reading,” he said when questioned about the notice. “We’re not trying to be deceptive ... It was an honest oversight. I take offense (that) the media makes something out of nothing, especially the Times-Herald.”

Times-Herald editor Melody Brunson said she called the superintendent’s office Thursday afternoon after learning of the meeting with only a few hours notice to confirm that there was indeed a meeting scheduled and to register a complaint of not being notified as called for by Indiana law.

Brunson said, “We don’t go out of our way to make mountains out of molehills, but notification was not properly given of Thursday’s meeting. Perhaps it was an honest mistake, but we, as the public watchdog, would not being doing our job if we failed to ask, ‘Why?’ The board is scheduled to meet again next Thursday, so what was the hurry, and why the secrecy?”