Patch – October 5, 2023:
Policy To Regulate Bernards Board Members Use Of Email, Social Media
Article originally publsihed October 5, 2023 on Patch
A policy regulating Bernards Township Board of Education (BOE) members’ use of email and social media was discussed and more changes are being proposed by the Board Attorney.
At the Monday night BOE meeting, Robin McKeon, who chairs the Policy Committee, said the committee had asked Board Attorney Matthew J. Giacobbe to look at the language in their newly revised policy that was approved in May.
The recent approval was the Board’s attempt to get all board members to agree with the policy and to abide by it.
However, McKeon said some board members they wanted to be able to respond to members of the public.
However, at the policy meeting on Sept. 11, Giacobbe expressed concerns with the language we had added, in particular the section on how board members should respond to messages sent to them individually or on personal accounts and the part about what happens when a member is not following the policy, said McKeon.
In order to protect the Board members and the district, Giacobbbe said Board members should not respond to messages about district business and instead they should be directed to Superintendent Nick Markarian.
As chief administrator of the district Markarian must be aware of all district business and should always be included, said McKeon.
Giacobbe said to think of Markarian as the “hub of a wheel.”
“Everything should flow through Nick and out from Nick. Board members’ jobs are to make sure the district is well run and the person that you hired to do that is your superintendent,” said Giacobbe at the Oct. 2 meeting.
It was also stressed that board members should never respond to messages about any board business on any BOE, personal or private accounts (email, text, social media) and instead all emails about district business, all complaints, and all requests for information sent to board members (whether to the full board or to individual members) should be referred to the superintendent.
“We talked about individual messages received to private accounts getting sent to the board members, Board of Ed email accounts for processing because that is the official method of communication if it is about board business. So that is what we are going to work into the policy,” said Markarian at the Oct. 2 meeting.
“People really shouldn’t be emailing you on private ones anyway for Board of Ed business but if they do then you have to handle it through the Board of Ed email,” said McKeon.
Giacobbbe suggested the Board go back to a previous simpler version of their policy and wanted to also modify the language in the section about what consequences there can be if a board member continually violates the policy.
“If board members do not abide by the policy, they could be removed from a committee by a vote by two-thirds of the board,” said McKeon.
The Committee had also asked that Giacobbe speak immediately with any board members who are not abiding by this policy. Giacobbe is going to help in making proposed language changes to the policy/regulation. The updated policy will be presented at an upcoming BOE meeting.
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