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The January 11, 2005 board meeting was a watershed event. 

In a surprise motion not on the agenda, board member Mark Berry made a courageous proposal to create individual voice mailboxes on the district system so that board members may be contacted individually.  Readingtonparents.org and others have called for a means of individual contact to allow a more open exchange of ideas.  Mr. Berry also made an impassioned defense of the idea in the time that followed.

Those attending the meeting were shocked and pleased at the motion, and audience members were seen supporting the idea with arms waving and mouths moving in silent animation.  Almost immediately, board members Denise Kenney and Marsha Parrish attacked the proposal, attempting to suffocate the idea in a cold, wet blanket.  Mr. Berry would have none of it, though, and he continued to counter the criticism with the hard facts of democracy.  Soon other board members chimed in with support.

Ms. Kenney and Ms. Parrish then attempted to squash the idea again by offering a motion to table the proposal "for further study". As the original motion had already been seconded, there was sudden confusion over the rules of order. Bill Weber finally decided to take a vote on the motion to table the idea. That vote, two for, five against, did not pass. Then, with no other option left, Mr. Berry's original motion was voted upon with Mark Berry, Bill Weber, Karan Fromme, Mike Denning, and Rich Kilpatrick all voting to pass the motion. Readington board members will now have individual voice mailboxes for use by the public.

Members of the public who spoke afterwards offered congratulations to those voting "yes" and words of warning for those voting against the idea.

In a democracy, individually elected officials must be accessible and open to public comment for the process to work.  Just as we expect members of Congress to answer individually while not speaking for the entire Congress, so do we expect board members to be available individually without speaking for the entire board. The very reason we elect board members is so that we have a liaison between the public and the public school district. Board members are where the rubber meets the road. For individual members to hide behind the idea that they must act as one is lunacy and evidence of a fundamental misunderstanding of the system.  There is one board policy, it is true, but there can be nine different opinions on that policy before a vote.

Readingtonparents.org applauds the action taken tonight. Mr. Berry deserves high praise for sticking his neck out first.  When the individual voice mail becomes active, we encourage all the residents of Readington to overflow his mailbox with that praise.