Delegates representing the more than 27,000 Howard County PTA members voted last night to ask Maryland's attorney general to investigate the legality of actions taken by the Board of Education this year.

"We're not the experts," said June Cofield, executive vice president of the county's PTA council. "We want to give it over to them."

Cofield is chairwoman of a 2-week-old task force created to look into board practices after it added a contentious amendment to school Superintendent John R. O'Rourke's contract Nov. 14. The amendment promised to renew the contract at the end of his current term in 2004 or pay him the equivalent of one year's salary - about $200,000.

The pledge raised a red flag for the PTA, which questions the legality of the amendment, the closed sessions during which it was discussed and the public notification that was given about the amendment and the closed meeting.

"This is not a complaint about the superintendent's salary or anything," said Rick Wilson, the council's vice president of operations and task force member. "It's about the process."

The PTA is also concerned about the lack of detailed informational minutes, as well as the frequency of board meetings that were closed to the public this year. Cofield said her committee found that there had been 24 closed meetings since January and 21 open meetings.

"There's no dispute that the Board of Education has every right to have a discussion about personnel matters in closed meetings," Cofield said. "The key word there is 'discussion.'"

Some, including school board member Virginia Charles, who is also a PTA delegate for Long Reach High School, contend that voting took place behind closed doors, which violates the state's Open Meetings Act.

The other four board members insist they acted under advice of counsel and did nothing wrong.

"Our attorneys have told us that everything was done the way it should have been done," said school board member James P. O'Donnell, who was in the audience at the PTA meeting

The task force offered five motions to the PTA delegates last night. In addition to asking for the attorney general's help, motions were passed that will ask the county delegation to use its influence to examine the contract amendment; ask board members to account for their actions; request that the board record its closed meetings on tape for future dispute clarification; and provide the PTA with ample notice of intent to close a meeting so it can get the word to the public.

"The PTA has always supported the need for public involvement," said council President Deborah Wessner.

Two years ago, the PTA asked the attorney general for an opinion on open meetings practices of the county school board.

The state's Open Meetings Compliance Board found in February last year that Howard's board "violated the [Open Meetings] Act by failing to prepare minutes properly and, in at least one instance, by failing to give notice of a meeting."

Corrective actions were promised, but Cofield said that obviously was not enough because the PTA delegates and school board are right back where they were two years ago. For that reason, another motion requests that the board not rely on its attorney, Mark Blom, for response as it did two years ago, but that the members reply themselves.

"We're asking to remove counsel and let us get to the school board," Cofield said. "We didn't elect the counsel. We elected the board."

Once voting on the motions began, an agitated O'Donnell interrupted, asking for his turn to speak. Wessner told him he was out of order.

"Their actions indicate they have decided something wrong happened," O'Donnell said. "That's unfortunate. The board's got to work their way back to a position of trust within the community. It's our responsibility to do that. Once you've lost the trust of an organization, it's hard to get it back."