Many of board's talks held behind closed doors Public not welcome at committee meetings held by Phillipsburg school officials. Monday, October 09, 2006 • By DANIEL HAUSMANN • The Express-Times PHILLIPSBURG | The school board broke from tradition last month when it decided to interview attorney candidates as a full board. That's not the way business is usually conducted in Phillipsburg. Typically, school board members first work on several issues and initiatives with Superintendent Gordon Pethick in smaller, specialized committees before those issues come before the entire board. The committee meetings aren't advertised and aren't open to the public. And as long as anyone can remember, they never have been. In late August, an Express-Times reporter was turned away from a curriculum committee meeting held shortly after No Child Left Behind scores were released. Because a majority of the school board isn't in on committee meetings, the committee meetings aren't subject to the New Jersey Open Public Meetings Law, Pethick said. "It's never been open that I can remember," he said. Pethick said the committee meetings provide a chance for board members to discuss issues with the administration. Motions that go on the full school board agenda usually carry a "as recommended by the superintendent" notation. "It's talking with people and seeing what their thoughts are," Pethick said of the committees. "There may be an issue in personnel I may want to talk to them about before they take action." The committees meet at various times in between full board meetings. Each committee is focused on an element of district operations such as budget, curriculum, athletics, buildings and grounds and personnel. The school district did not respond to a request for the current committee assignments. Tom Cafferty, the attorney for the New Jersey Press Association, said state open public meeting laws don't recognize meetings in which a majority of members are not present. The law does specify that failing to invite all members to a meeting is a violation, he said. "One could argue that failing to invite other members is an attempt to circumvent open public meetings laws," Cafferty said last week. School board members differed last month on whether the committee approach was better than interviews before the entire board. "When I've talked about doing things as a committee as a whole, I was told we operate in committees around here," board President Paul Rummerfield said. Rummerfield said when he was selected president in May he took suggestions and requests for committee appointments. He said he never tried to walk in on a committee to which he didn't belong and he's never seen non-committee members show up at meetings. Rummerfield assigns the committees and said they can give direction on future board action. "The problem I have is depending on what committee you're on determines how much information you have," Rummerfield said. Cafferty outlined a scenario in which the school board directs a committee to look at seven options and the committee returns with only three for a decision. "The public hasn't seen why the other options were eliminated; that defeats the purpose of the act," Cafferty said. "An important part of the discussion has been removed from public view." By comparison, the Easton Area School Board opens its committee meetings to the public. Many agenda items carry the committees' recommendations, which are subject to full board approval. In Pennsylvania, if a committee is authorized to take official action or provide advice to the public agency -- such as a school board -- it's subject to that state's open meetings law. Under Pennsylvania and New Jersey laws, the meeting must be open to the public if a quorum of the school board is present. Neither Rummerfield nor Pethick had an explanation for the origin of the closed-door committee system in Phillipsburg. Bill Poch, the board secretary and district business manager, has been with Phillipsburg since 1991. Poch said the closed-door committee system predated him. "Probably somewhere along the line an attorney gave an opinion," Rummerfield said. Reporter Daniel Hausmann can be reached at 610-258-7171 or by e-mail at dhausmann@express-times.com. © 2006 The Express-Times. Used with permission.