The Clayton County school board has denied one of several allegations of open meeting violations by the attorney general's office.

The state attorney general's office ordered the board to respond by Friday to allegations it illegally closed meetings. The request followed a complaint from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution alleging that the board met illegally behind closed doors, including with officials from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and state Board of Education.

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On Tuesday, Clayton board attorney Dorsey Hopson sent a letter to the attorney general saying the board did not "knowingly and willingly" violate the law when it met privately with SACS.

Hopson said the board consulted with Glenn Brock, the district's former SACS attorney, before meeting behind closed doors with Mark A. Elgart, SACS president and chief executive officer.

Brock, who is preparing a response to the attorney general, said he advised the board that the law allows for evaluation of public officers to be done in closed session. However, he stressed that the private conversations must focus on how they "might respond to the board-related SACS recommendations, the call for their individual resignations and the inappropriate disclosure of confidential personnel information," he said Wednesday in a statement.

"I fully acknowledge that the content of any executive session must be closely monitored to ensure that the discussions do not stray from the scope of this exception to the Open Meetings Act," Brock said. "For the purpose of clarification, this firm has not advised the Clayton school board on any other general legal matters related to the Open Meetings Act such as the use of affidavits or other specific reasons to close meetings for executive session. General legal matters of the Clayton County School District are handled by the district's in-house counsel, Dorsey Hopson."

In his letter Tuesday, Hopson did not address the other allegations raised by the state, including why the board has conducted all its business behind closed doors on several occasions during the past few months.

The board also did not respond to questions about missing sworn affidavits stating the reason for closing meetings. The law requires the board chair to sign an affidavit after every closed session.

"The school board has established a pattern of violating the open meetings act," said Thomas Clyde, an attorney for the Journal-Constitution. "What the board needs to do is commit to doing all of its work in the open until they have regained the confidence of the community."

Hopson said the board will send an additional response to the state by Friday.

"We appreciate the opportunity to respond to what we believe to be baseless allegations," Hopson wrote. "To the extent that your investigation is being driven in part by media reports, we urge you to closely scrutinize the source of your information."

However, on several instances, the board has admitted to violations.

Last week, the board said a " mix-up" caused it to violate its own meeting policy, which required the board to vote twice to offer a contract to superintendent John W. Thompson. The second vote came after the Journal-Constitution reported that the meeting violated board policy.

The board also has had to reschedule three meetings in the past two weeks after it failed to post agendas within 24 hours, as the law requires.

SACS cited the board for open meetings violations, among other ethics violations. The district has until Sept. 1 to meet nine mandates from SACS or lose accreditation.