MASSENA — Video conferencing is prohibited, at least for now, as part of changes to Policy 1510, which governs Massena Central School Board meetings and rules.
However, not all board members agreed with the change, with Chairman Paul A. Haggett and board members Susan B. Lambert and Robert M. LeBlanc voting against it during the board's first reading. I cast my vote.
The policy was presented to the full school board by the policy committee in January for a first reading, but was put on hold until concerns were resolved via video conference. This includes the latest information from Erie 1 BOCES, which works with school districts across New York State to develop and maintain board-adopted policies and administrative manuals, either as written or specific to each school district. You can make changes and approve it.
Policy Committee Chair Jodelle L. Hammock said during Thursday's meeting that the committee has since chosen to remove the ability for board members to attend meetings remotely by video.
“The Policy Committee recommends that Policy 1510 be left as is, remove the video conferencing language update, and maintain existing policy,” she said.
Mr Haggett questioned this recommendation.
“Even though New York State's open meetings law allows for video conferencing, is there no provision for video conferencing in our company's policies?” he asked.
“We were talking about this. We understand that if a natural disaster or emergency occurs again, if it concerns us, we will follow these guidelines. And we know that similar technologies All we talked about was failures, bad connections, and the annoyance of having to wait for someone else to connect, and just trying to make the meeting go as smoothly as possible,” Hammock said.
Huggett questioned the policy again later in the meeting when board members were asked to approve the first reading.
“I have one or two concerns,” he said. “First of all, I think it would be a mistake to deny boards the flexibility to have the option of video conferencing just because the technology exists and we have successfully utilized it during COVID-19.” he said.
He said he understands that the internet can have “glitches.”
“But I think we've proven that you can use it in situations other than coronavirus,” Haggett said. “I think the Open Meetings Act allows for this type of operation and allows school board members who are not necessarily in town at the time of the meeting to participate more fully in the business of the school board. ”
He said if he visits family out of state during a meeting, “I hope I have the opportunity to video conference and participate in that meeting.” There is no opportunity to do that if we remain with the policies currently in place without video conferencing options. ”
Huggett said the New York State School Boards Association is lobbying the state government on behalf of school districts to “liberalize the rules for video conferencing and remove onerous rules like having to report where you're going.” He said there was.
“I don't think the use of video conferencing and platforms like Zoom will go away,” he said. “I think by incorporating that as part of regional policy, we can be more flexible as a board.”
LeBlanc said video conferencing was convenient when he needed to meet with the superintendent to make a quick decision and the best time to meet was in the morning.
“Sometimes it was a 15-, 20-minute meeting,” he says.
“You wouldn't be able to do that under the current law. That could be post-coronavirus. Schools could have been open. But the law at the time said there was an option to hold the meeting completely remotely. It was prescribed and we did it,” Haggett said.
Vice President Kevin F. Peretta said he supports in-person meetings rather than video conferences.
“Personally, I felt we had an obligation to the public to attend. If you can't attend, that's fine. We are a board of nine members. We can still function. Most of our meetings are scheduled well in advance. They are not last minute. So if someone chooses to take time off, it is a personal choice,” he said. Told.
Peretta said she understands there are emergencies for families.
“I'm not blaming anyone who made that decision. But we have a duty to the public to be present. I'm not fully retired yet, but I'm “I think I’m getting older and I’d rather meet someone in person than through a screen,” he said. “I didn't like anything when we met (via Zoom) during the coronavirus pandemic. It may have been convenient, but I don't know if it was effective.”
Peretta also said he was concerned that some members of the public who do not have the appropriate technology may not have the opportunity to participate in remote meetings.
“Maybe you're excluding someone in this technological way because they don't have the ability to come to the meeting and they don't have access to the technology,” he says.
“As part of the open meetings law as it currently stands, allowing video conferencing requires a quorum to be present at the physical location,” Haggett said. “So any member of the public who wants to participate in a school board meeting can do so here. Unless there's one person on the screen or he's two people or whatever, he's nine people. You can’t see everyone’s faces.”
Since this was the first reading of the policy, Peretta said there is still time for the policy committee to make changes before asking the board to approve a second reading. Board members elected to vote on first reading, with Haggett, Lambert and LeBlanc voting against.
