Millstone still can't tune in Board of Ed. meetings Dreifus, Dietz would have to want issue brought to forefront again BY JANE MEGGITT Staff Writer MILLSTONE - A local resident frustrated by the fact that the Board of Education does not televise or record its meetings brought the issue before the Township Committee Sept. 19. Ramon Recalde, who has attended recent Millstone Township Board of Education meetings regarding the school district's lack of transportation for some of its nonpublic school students, said that not televising or recording the meetings amounts to "a lack of accountability" to residents and taxpayers. Recalde said that because the board does not record its meetings, members cannot be challenged about what they did or did not say. He alleged that the board refuses to answer his questions. The resident told the Township Committee that he intends to record the board meetings on his own. Committeeman Steven Sico, the committee's liaison to the board, said board policy states that a member of the public who wants to record a meeting must give the board 24 hours' notice prior to doing so. Mayor Nancy Grbelja told Recalde that the Township Committee offered the board use of the township's portable camera to tape meetings. She said the board used the device to have the ability to televise this year's board budget meeting. Grbelja said that the new middle school also has equipment for televising board meetings, but the board would have to move its meetings into the new school from the elementary school. Grbelja said the board passed a policy stating that it does not want to tape or record its meetings. On March 12, the board voted 4-4 against a motion that would have allowed a six-month trial period for recording and broadcasting all board meetings. Members Tom Foley, Mary Ann Friedman, Sergio Galindo and Peter Kudrick all voted in favor of the measure, with Holly Deitz, Laura Dreifus, Gina Morrone and Sami Qutub casting the dissenting votes. The ninth board member, Kathy Winecoff, who was Millstone's representative on the Upper Freehold Regional Board of Education, did not attend the meeting due to her involvement in a superintendent search for the Upper Freehold Regional School District. Grbelja told Recalde that the Township Committee cannot govern the board. "[The board is] a separate entity," she said. "We don't have the ability to tell them they have to [record]." Sico said the offer still stands if the board wants to use the township's camera. The Township Committee has televised its meetings for several years, and Grbelja said that members like it because there can be no question as to what they have said. Committeeman Elias Abilheira said he would support a motion asking the board to televise its meetings. "It's their decision," he said, "but as the governing body, we can encourage them to televise." Although the Board of Education's budget is responsible for most of a homeowner's property tax bill, there is no state law that requires the board to record its meetings. In Millstone, the school district's portion of the tax bill is 75.69 percent, or about $27.5 million. According to Board of Education President Mary Ann Friedman, if the subject of televising meetings came up again, it would have to be brought up by a member who voted against taping the meetings. "I was not on the prevailing side [of the vote]," Friedman said. "When the issue was voted down, I had said that I thought we would be revisiting the issue due to public opinion. "I had hoped that it would've been brought to the table again," she added. Among those who dissented at the March 12 meeting, only Dietz and Dreifus remain on the board.