Will Montclair's BOE accept the township's offer to utilize a comfortable air-conditioned room and broadcast their meetings on TV34 in the spirit of transparency? The subject came up at the board's first meeting, and town council says that they've formed a committee to mull over the proposition. Do they need a nudge, or a big push? Councilman Cary Africk writes:
I support televising of the Board of Education meetings, live, by moving the meetings to the Council chambers at 205 Claremont Ave.Such a move would be in line with my belief that as many town meetings as possible should be televised, and that indeed there should be much more public programming on Channel 34. Channel 34 is a much underutilized resource in the town, and both the Communications Advisory Committee, as well as the Town Council, are committed to investing in the TV station, as well as other forms of communications such as the Web site, to make them a grand success.
As the Council liaison to the Montclair Communications Advisory Committee I was encouraged to hear, at my first meeting, that they were firmly committed to "openness and transparency" and to increasing communications within the entire town. They had a vision to " incorporate other township entities .... including the Board of Education, Public Library and ... some of the non-profits."
We spoke of expanding the programming of Channel 34 to include the planning and zoning boards, the environmental commission, indeed most every town "official" group so as to bring residents into the process, so people could understand how things work, and most important so people could become involved.I think it is especially important that the Board of Education bring their meetings into the process, because they do some of the most important work in the town.
The Board's task is huge, and I feel that the more people who see just how big the task is, the more people will support, and become involved with, the BOE.
Not to mention that the biggest share of the tax dollar, approximately 60% (or $110MM), goes to the Board, making the subject interesting to people who may not even have children in the schools!
I can think of no reason the Board's meeting should not be televised, in real time.
The BOE has not yet responded to the council, nor have they commented to Baristanet...meanwhile, Montclair Watch's Pegi Adam advises scrutinizing the letter of the law, and asks "can the BOE refuse such taping because Channel 34 is a 'Montclair Government Channel?' " John Paff, chair of the Open Government Advocacy Council
of the New Jersey Libertarian Party, writes: "In 2007, the New Jersey Supreme Court held that citizens have a common law right to videotape meetings of public bodies provided that the videotaping does not disrupt the meeting."
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Comments (11)
The Board of Education meetings must be televised. The BOE is responsible for a big chunk of our property tax dollars. The BOE is responsible for educating our kids. It is bad enough that members are un-elected and answer to no one. At least their meetings should be televised so more of us are able to scrutinize their activities. Let's hope our new mayor appoints new members who favor tv coverage.
Jerzee, my thoughts exactly.
The BOE gets about 55% of our taxes and where's the transparency? They're appointed, not elected.....so where's the accountability?
Is it beneath them to grant Montclair taxpayers the privilege of televised meetings?
"Is it beneath them to grant Montclair taxpayers the privilege of televised meetings?"
In all fairness, the Board of Education is well on its way to seeing that we'll most probably start getting televised meetings fairly soon. The BOE has already created a task force to specifically look into the matter. If the task force approves of this measure, the Board of Education will appoint a committee with the specific duty of reviewing the findings of the task force. Once that is done, if the Board of Education finds that the committee's findings warrant broadcasting of board meetings, then a new commission will be formed that will then implement a plan whereas board of education meetings may be televised live.
complainerpuss,
And the best part is I heard the actions you described above will only end up costing the town about $10 (for every man, woman, and child in town).
Maybe someone should just show up at their meetings with a camcorder...then post it to YouTube.
Compainerpuss ..... as an "insider," you have no idea how close to the
truth your post is!!
Televised meetings - Why would the BOE turn down this opportunity to show us what a great job they are doing of spending our tax dollars?
Nanas, through a lot of bull, even my own, you have been a voice of...sanity. I would like to take your sane words a step or two further with your permission.
Why is any town, county, state or federal official meetings closed door and in this day and age, not broadcast? (I know the answer, but they'll be unhappy)
The Open Public Meetings Act in New Jersey requires that public meetings be, well, public. There are very few exceptions, and minutes of those meetings must be kept and the public body must disclose in general what was talked about and when the minutes will be released.
Also, the public body has to VOTE, in public session, before going into one of those "confidential" closed sessions. And they can't vote in the closed session, but must come out of closed session and vote in public.
Believe it or not in this day and age there ARE a lot of laws that provide GOOD information. It's when the public isn't AWARE of the laws, or isn't aware of the information that must be supplied that we're in trouble.
Many reports are required, even, to be provided on web sites. Other reports are required to be published in "user friendly" formats.
We have a lot of protection. The problem is we don't know about it, and many times the people who do have the information we need are the last people who are going to tell us what our rights are.
As to televising meetings, I believe many communities, around Montclair are televising BOE, and other meetings.
I figure we should be a leader in this area. Planning board, Environmental Commission, Zoning Board, as much as we can should be on TV, and as much documentation as possible should be on a web site.
Cary Africk
This was originally posted as Closed Door Meeting, now that's in paragraph 2
Not only is the jury out on if and when the BOE will decide to meet, transparently, on Tv34, but I also discovered that these increasingly mysterious public servants are also unreachable by email, too. Not only do they prefer private meetings (about your public education) but they also prefer no direct email contact. Do other school districts operate similarly? Shutting the doors on democracy, is not very democratic. But, if you want to know who your BOE members are, here are their names. And the only way to email them is indirectly, via Nderosa@Montclair,K12.NJ.US their first line of defense. I don?t know if there is a way to confirm if your email was forwarded to them, or who makes the decision about whether it gets forwarded, at all.
Names:
Carmen Taylor, Robert Kautz, Shelly Lombard, John Carlton, Dana Sullivan (School Business Administrator/Board Secretary), Timothy Barr, Ronald Riddick, Shirley Grill, Frank Alvarez (Superintendent).
Faces:
http://www.montclair.k12.nj.us/WebPage.aspx?Id=12
By the way, I stumbled on this communication barrier because I wanted to email the BOE to suggest the ?walking school bus? concept. (When I found out they did not make their emails public, it reminded me of the local store that doesn?t accept debit cards. Aw, c?mon, you kiddin? me, right?) The ?walking school bus? is one way to cut the fat off the school budget without cutting into the real meat of education. As fuel prices (and taxes) rise, some districts are updating this old method of getting children to school, and I thought it merited exploration. Walking is being implemented successfully by schools and students around the nation, why not Montclair?
http://www.newsweek.com/id/157579?gt1=43002
1. What: A group of kids, supervised by an adult or two, make the trek together. Inclement weather is not an issue; Somerville, New Jersey, New Hampshire or Missouri, kids walk. Some say they get to school quicker than the bus.
2. Benefits: As fuel costs rise, nearly 30-40%, this accounts for at lest 5% of the school budget. This is an area where you can cut back without impacting classroom instruction or test scores. Also, get the kids active before and after school. Mentally, the kids treat it like recess, and physically, they are practicing a healthy lifestyles.
3. Caveat: One bus replaces 36 private cars, but families have to commit. If they revert back to private wheels, that creates more air pollution than riding the bus in the first place.