School Board nixes televising of board retreat

Thursday, 11 June 2009

by Kara Hildreth Thisweek Newspapers The Farmington School Board talked about how it can work together with the administration at a board retreat Monday, June 8, but the meeting wasn’t shown on television. Board Chairman Bob Heman proposed during Monday’s regular board meeting  prior to the retreat to waive the cablecast, a motion prompted by a policy that states any time a meeting is held, it should be televised. The motion passed 4-2. Board members Heman, John Kampf, Veronica Walter and Julie McKnight voted in favor. Board members Tim Burke and Julie Singewald voted against it. Those in favor cited that not televising the meeting would promote a more candid exchange. Burke and Singewald disagreed with that assessment, preferring instead to keep the meeting, which was open to the public, available on television. Kampf argued that because no business items would be discussed, the board would not be depriving the public of any information. “I think it is important for the public to see us learn to work together and work at it as a group and do things together even though we have different opinions,” Singewald said. Burke said he would not be any more or less frank if the cameras were rolling, and because reporters could not be thrown out, the cameras should be on to televise the discussion. “I don’t think we gain anything and all we are doing is expressing our lack of faith in our constituency in terms of being able to observe what we discuss,” Burke said. Because the retreat covered how the district superintendent would be evaluated in the next contract, Burke said the discussion would be business related. “We had some very candid discussions at our last retreat and I hope we can continue that,” McKnight said, referring to the first board retreat held April 17. Walter said she felt people talk differently when they are on camera and speak in a more professional and less candid manner. Walter said she could not support the TV broadcast because it would not promote open dialogue and productive discussion. Kara Hildreth is at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Comments (0) Subscribe to this comment's feed Write comment Name Email Comment smaller | bigger Subscribe via email (Registered users only) I have read and agree to the Terms of Usage. Write the displayed characters Add Comment

Last Updated ( Wednesday, 26 August 2009 )

 

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