If a consensus is essentially a decision...

"If a consensus is essentially a decision, in the case of a school board, the action taken to select a superintendent could only occur during an open meeting," said Robert J. Freeman, executive director of the state's Committee on Open Government. "The courts have established that boards of education must take their actions in public except in rare circumstances, and this would not be one of them."

http://www.buffalonews.com/incoming/article884691.ece