WEST WINDSOR: School board to experiment with videotaping its meetings

By Lea Kahn, Staff Writer
WEST WINDSOR — Smile, you’re on camera. If you are sitting on the West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School Board, that is.
After months of discussion, the school board is going to allow its March 8 meeting to be videotaped in an experimental move.
The school board’s Administration and Facilities Committee has been discussing the possibility of recording the meetings since January, and agreed last month to allow a meeting to be videotaped.
School board vice president Michele Kaish said videotaping the March 8 meeting would serve as a “test run” for the school board. It will guide the board in deciding whether to tape subsequent meetings, she said.
Making it clear that she was speaking as a citizen and not as an elected official, Linda Geevers told the school board at its Feb. 16 meeting that she favors taping the school board meetings. Ms. Geevers is the Township Council president and a former school board member.
“I would support the school board taping the meetings. I would watch because I am interested. A lot of issues come up, and this is a great way to communicate,” said Ms. Geevers, who served on the school board from 1999 to 2005.
“Many people in the community are interested, but they cannot get out to a meeting. We tape the Township Council meetings,” Ms. Geevers said.
Several parents raised the issue of taping the meetings at the school board’s Jan. 5 meeting, and again at the school board’s Jan. 26 meeting.
The parents said recording the meetings would help with communication issues and that it would also benefit parents and residents who could not attend a meeting because of work or other scheduling conflicts.
Ms. Kaish said earlier that purchasing a recording system — whether it is a basic recording system or a “high-tech” system — is a one-time expense, but there will likely be recurring expenses.
She pointed out that the school board moves its meetings from school to school. During the 2015-16 school year, the board is meeting at Grover Middle School in West Windsor Township.
But beginning in July, which is the beginning of the 2016-17 school year, the school board will meet at Community Middle School in Plainsboro Township.