Tuesday evening, the Cabell Board of Education will meet to hear results of a report evaluating several possible sites for a new middle school that would combine the existing Beverly Hills and Enslow middle schools. This could be the most controversial and contentious matter regarding a school site since the new Huntington High School site selection in the early 1990s.

Superintendent William Smith has said he wants the board to go into executive session to review the committee's information and recommendations before the report is made public.

That decision is up to the school board. The board should think carefully before going behind closed doors, away from the public, to discuss anything having to do with consolidating schools.

West Virginia's Open Governmental Proceedings Act allows school boards and other public bodies wide lattitude to meet in closed session. Too much, in fact. In this case, the law allows a closed session "to consider matters involving or affecting the purchase, sale or lease of property ... which, if made public, might adversely affect the financial or other interest of the state or any political subdivision . . ."

For all practical purposes, the county's central office has identified three potential sites for a consolidated school: the Veterans Memorial Field House, the Career Technology Center, and land adjacent to the Tech Center. Those parcels are owned, respectively, by the Greater Huntington Park and Recreation District, the school board itself and Marshall University.

The board is not dealing with private parties in choosing a school site. It's dealing with public bodies that must abide by laws regarding open meetings and open records.

The public has no way of knowing what is discussed behind closed doors during executive sessions. It must take the board's word for it that discussions are kept to the limits of the law on open meetings.

Board President Ted Barr says he will not vote for an executive session, saying the sites have been discussed publicly already. He's right, and the other four board members should vote likewise on a closed session.

Everything about the decision of whether and where to consolidate Beverly Hills and Enslow will be controversial. The board will need every bit of public trust it can get. Going into secret discussion sessions is not the way to earn that trust.

There is no way anyone can say for certain that what the board will discuss Tuesday justifies a closed-door meeting. This is a matter in which secret discussions must be kept to a minimum. The board must think carefully before shutting the public out of any discussions Tuesday night or afterward.

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