School board weighs Skype rules
By Phyllis Moore
Published in News on April 5, 2015 1:50 AM
pmoore@newsargus.com
The Wayne County Board of Education will consider creating a policy to deal with Skyping, members said Friday afternoon.
The topic was introduced during a 12-minute open session of board comments, as two days of interviews for superintendent candidates wrapped up.
The board had already held an all-day work session Tuesday to discuss the budget and other matters. Wednesday and Friday were devoted to eight interviews with potential candidates for the top role in the district.
Skyping has become an increasing concern since one of the board members, District 2 representative Dr. Dwight Cannon, has relied on the technology more heavily over the past 14 months. Since taking over as pastor of a Burlington, N.J., church, his schedule has expanded to include campaigning for a national leadership role with the denomination and being a substitute teacher for the school district there.
His attendance at regular and called school board meetings and committee meetings here has become irregular. Skyping, or FaceTime, have been used more heavily, calling into question Cannon's ability to serve effectively on the board.
At the conclusion of Tuesday's work session, he addressed some of the concerns, saying he took his duties on the school board very seriously.
He was absent from that meeting and had been there via Skype, although for a portion of the day he was not visible on the screen and did not participate in the discussion. During board comment at day's end, he took issue with "the process" of scheduling meetings, blaming that for his inability to attend, and blasting the board for scheduling the superintendent interviews on Good Friday. He said he would be there, via Skype, for Wednesday's interviews but would not make himself available on Friday.
He also made his intentions for the future clear, saying it would take "an act of Congress" to remove him from the board.
Several board members fired back on Friday, suggesting a policy be developed to address the virtual attendance issue.
Board member Eddie Radford said he had received several calls from residents about the "system of Skyping" but found no policy that addressed it.
"We need to come up with some type of policy," he said. "Once the people out there begin to talk to us about it, we need to make that some type of policy."
Board member Arnold Flowers said he had hoped it would not come to that, but a backlash from the public warranted the discussion.
"Obviously what's been in the newspaper a couple times now has been concerning me and generated a lot of conversation in the community and in my community," he said. "I've had people, citizens, actually frown on me and us as a board because we were allowing this, and seemed to think that we as a board should address an issue that that's concerning.
"I was kind of taken aback. I had one gentleman, who had been firmly involved in the county's politics, tell me, 'Well, the school board makes the rules.'"
Flowers said he understands that Skyping is legal as an option for attending meetings, and has no problem with that in itself, but suggested even if it is "wonderful" in theory, it should only be used on occasion.
"I could certainly see a couple times a year -- someone had some type of family emergency or were away on vacation, I don't have a problem with Skyping in a situation like that," he said. "But to use Skype as a method to circumvent your responsibility to be at this meeting, in my opinion, is wrong, regardless if the law says it's OK."
Flowers said he also had a problem with using Skype in closed session because it had the potential to compromise the meeting, as everything on the camera might not be visible.
"Hypothetically, I could be on Skype somewhere and have a room full of people that you could not see on camera," he said. "I think that you put us at risk in closed session, the integrity of the closed session, when somebody in closed session is on Skype.
"Also hypothetically, if everybody, let's say everybody wanted to Skype. I've been here three full days and we've had Skype each day. Now, I could have been home, could have been in my office, I could have been balancing my checkbook. I could have been doing things. I could have turned the camera to look at the wall and went outside and walked around or in another room and took a 30-minute nap. But I've been here every day."
There is a problem with an elected official consistently using Skype and "not showing up," he said.
"It's not the same to me as someone that has a job in just another county, for somebody to be in another state with a job and be obligated to the Board of Education," he said. "I know this is controversial. I don't want it to be this way. But I didn't make this situation."
Board Chairman Chris West kept his remarks on the subject brief.
"I understand Skyping is legal. Yes, it is legal," he said. "I would like to see this board and the policy committee come up with a policy since we don't have a policy for or against Skyping. I think that we need, we've got policies for almost everything now. We need to address the Skyping and we need to address what's the best way to go about all that.
"We need to use our policy committee to come up with a policy on Skyping -- when it's allowed, when it's not allowed, how many times it's allowed -- because we do set the policies for Wayne County Public Schools and we can set that policy as well, and then we'll take the recommendations of the policy committee and bring it to the full board and have further discussion about it."
Members of the policy committee include Jennifer Strickland, Pridgen and Cannon.