High School Board Tries Revamping Agenda Planning

In hopes of streamlining meetings of the Watchung Hills Regional High School Board of Education meetings—and possibly save a few dollars—board President Robert Horowitz offered several changes at Tuesday's meeting.

Although the suggestions led to a discussion of possibly changing the scheduled day of the week, the focus was on trying to eliminate sources of meeting-halting discussions.

Noting he wanted to discuss "trying to move the meetings along on a good, intelligent pace," Horowitz outlined a sequence for creating meeting agendas that he said could eliminate many of the questions board members have during board meetings.

To do that, he suggested having meeting agendas distributed earlier, to allow members to ask district administrators for any clarification or information needed—and, hopefully, get an answer before the meetings.

And Horowitz suggested having the agendas distributed by e-mail on the Wednesday preceding a meeting, which could also save the cost of printing and distributing the agendas and the ancillary documentation on agenda items for board members.

"I don't ask for much for being on the board, but one thing I do ask is to have paper before me at the meetings," board member Gerry Binder said. He said he did not want to have to be concerned with the various formats documents may be saved in on computers, nor did he want to have to carry a computer to the board meetings.

Binder and board member Peter Fallon both requested to have copies printed and available for them, and board member Paul Seelig said while he preferred a printed agenda, he could print it from the e-mailed version.

Seelig also noted his experience led him to believe most board members did not have time to read the agendas until the weekend preceding a meeting, which was why many brought their questions for administrators to the meeting. This led to a discussion of possibly moving the meetings to another night, such as Wednesdays, but no consensus was reached.

The board members may discuss the issues further at the June 6 meeting.

Horowitz said there currently is no plan to eliminate printed copies of the board agendas made available for residents who may attend the meetings.