Skip Skype: School stakeholders need board members who will represent them in person

The Wayne County Board of Education this week rejected a more lenient remote Skyping participation policy offered by the state School Boards Association.

Good for them.

The board had adopted its own policy on Skyping this past fall, limiting the number of times the computer-aided attendance method could be used. The policy was adopted in large part because of its increased use by board member Dwight Cannon, who pastors a church well outside his district -- in New Jersey in fact.

The proposed policy would have allowed Skyping on more occasions than the county's policy, and we think the board did the right thing in rejecting the more lenient rules.

School board members, like the members of any elected board, are chosen by the voters to represent them at meetings and other functions. A board member who repeatedly misses meetings -- in the flesh -- is simply not performing his or her duties as they promised the voters they would.

Hats off to the school board for sticking to their guns. Students and teachers are not permitted to Skype their way into classes. They have to show up in person. We should expect no less from the people who purport to lead our educational system.

Published in Editorials on January 8, 2016 11:27 AM