By Rick Palsgrove
Groveport Editor
The Groveport Madison Board of Education has decided to no longer electronically audio tape record its meeting proceedings, which concerns one of the board’s members.
Board member Kathy Walsh disagrees with the board eliminating the electronic recording of the board’s meetings.
“We should continue recording the meetings for transparency and openness reasons,” said Walsh. “Also for accuracy so we can review the recordings and correct the written meeting minutes when there is an error. Without audio, I am not sure how those inaccuracies will be caught or corrected.”
Walsh added that not all parents and community members can attend board meetings and the recordings could be a source of information for them.
However, Groveport Madison Communications Director Jeff Warner said the public can readily find information about the board meeting proceedings and actions taken by the board by reading the board’s written board meeting minutes, which are always available for public viewing on the Groveport Madison Schools website at gocruisers.org under the board tab and filed in the BoardDocs section.
Warner said school districts are not legally required to electronically record board meetings.
“The written board meeting minutes are the official record documenting the board meeting proceedings,” said Warner. “Electronic recordings are not the official document of the board meetings.”
He said the written meeting minutes must be approved by the board to become the official public record.
Warner noted there has been no real demand by the public to listen to the electronic recordings of past board meetings.
“In my six years here, no member of the public has ever asked to listen to the electronic recordings of the board meetings,” said Warner.
They are going back to using smoke signals.