Topeka ? Atty. Gen. Phill Kline today appeared before a legislative committee to defend closed-door meetings he held with conservative members of the Kansas State Board of Education.

Kline has been under fire from media organizations who allege the meetings may have violated the Kansas Open Meetings Act.

“It is not close to a violation,” Kline told the Senate Elections and Local Government Committee.

The dispute is over meetings Kline held last week with members of the board, whose 10 members are split with conservatives holding a 6-4 majority over moderates.

Under the state’s open meetings law, meetings with a majority of a quorum of a public board must be held in public. A quorum on the education board is six members, and a majority of that is four.

But Kline held two meetings with three conservative members each. He and members who attended those meetings said Kline discussed school finance litigation and a proposal to put stickers on science books that say evolution is a theory and not a fact.

Kline said his staff told him the meetings were in compliance with the law.