Agenda for the February 10th BOE Meeting - BOE Prioritizes OPRA Log Over Enrollment Crisis. Board Goals: Will RIH BOE Finally Fix Facilities Spending, Transparency Issues and Reduce Costs?
- Kathie Schwartz
- Feb 9
- 3 min read
The next meeting of the RIH BOE is on Monday February 10 at 8pm at the IHHS Auditorium. Items of note on the agenda:
Board discussion on BOARD GOALS:
Board goals are long overdue. The last time this Board set goals for itself was 2020-2021, before the district Strategic Plan was done. At the last meeting Audrey Souders suggested board members email their ideas to her and she would compile a list for discussion at a public meeting. Over the past two years, this Board has been repeatedly accused, by both board members at the table and members of the public, of violating the Open Public Meeting Act (“OPMA”) by avoiding public conversation and pushing board discussions behind closed doors into Executive Session and serial phone meetings. I hope to see a goal that addresses improved transparency and compliance with OPMA.
Board discussion on OPRA LOG:
I’m not sure why a Board discussion on the OPRA log is a priority. I would much rather hear the Board discuss how they are going to address the enrollment disparity in the two high schools and how it impacts our students’ experience.
But Board President Audrey Souders is choosing to focus on the OPRA Log instead. As I see it, this boils down to two issues.
1. REDUCE COSTS: There have been outrageous legal fees attached to the production of OPRA requests over the past 2 years. While a social media campaign attempts to blame members of the public for this part of the increase in legal fees, the true cause is the change in Board practice during 2023 and 2024 to send all OPRA requests to outside legal counsel for redaction. This has resulted in $60,000-$80,000 in legal fees in the past two years which would have been better spent on our students. The solution is for the Board to bring OPRA redactions back in house, as was done prior to 2023, to reduce legal costs associated with routine and straightforward requests.
In fact, in April 2023, the Board’s legal counsel, Busch Law Group, wrote this to Judy Sullivan: “…it is our hope that we can partner with the Board to help it lower its legal costs going forward. For example, in an effort to contain legal fees related to responses to the OPRA requests, we suggest that the Board consider thoroughly training one or more of its employees in the area of responding to OPRA requests.”
2. IMPROVE TRANSPARENCY: The public is legally entitled to information under the Open Public Records Act, and when a Board does not conduct itself transparently, it increases the likelihood of OPRA requests. This Board has not acted transparently over the past two years, so there may have been an increase in OPRA requests to see what the Board is hiding. Rather than shame members of the community for wanting information, the better solution is for the Board to stop hiding things behind closed doors, and conduct business more transparently. Furthermore, most districts that publish their OPRA logs ALSO publish the RESPONSES to the requests, in the interest of transparency. The Board would likely be embarrassed if some of the OPRA’d information were made public, but if their goal is transparency, they should post the responses for all to see.
Operations:
There is a motion to approve a $47,800 contract with LAN Associates to do a comprehensive survey and report of the Physical Condition of each high school.
We have all noticed the huge spend down from our capital reserves over the past two years, led by Interim Business Administrator Dora Zeno and former VP and Finance Chair Marianna Emmolo. Why would they have spent all that money without having building evaluations and a comprehensive plan in place first?
In fact, in July of 2024 (AFTER most of the spend downs were approved), the Board reviewed and updated its Long Range Facilities Plan and submitted it to the State of NJ.
So, they did the projects first, did the plan next, and are doing the building study last. This seems backwards to me. Anyone else?
I hope that Superintendent DeMarco will take the reins back from the Business Administrator and Board committee, and lead the district’s facilities spending in a more strategic manner going forward.
