Video recordings ensure that an accurate account of a local government meeting exists. Might those recordings also contribute to ongoing misperceptions?
School Superintendent Dr. Roberta Freeman, several board members and one resident debated those issues during a pair of April public sessions. Going forward, meeting videos will remain posted online for 45 days or until the board approves minutes of the session in question. Audio is no longer maintained on the district’s website, although several years’ worth was once available.
Critics mentioned that meeting video and audio were previously maintained for lengthy periods on the district website and/or YouTube channel. They viewed the removals as a hit to transparency.
Freeman and Board President Danielle Parenti saw the matter differently. If one parent were to complain publicly about a staff member, they asserted, that critique could exist online continually in a meeting video. Unanswered, that lone assessment might present an inaccurate depiction of the related matter.
According to Freeman, the board approved the policy in August 2024 establishing the 45-day posting limit.
Board member Martin Quinn asked about that bylaw during the board’s April 28 Committee of the Whole session. Quinn said nearly two years’ worth of recordings were removed from the district’s YouTube channel during the past two or three months. The district’s website has a link to that channel.
Parenti replied that the videos have been archived, not destroyed, and were available through the filing of an Open Public Records Act request. Discussion by school officials ensued but the matter might not be over. A rewrite of the video policy may come back before the board for consideration in the coming months.
Leaving videos with unjustified complaints online for long periods could leave staff to “not feel supported,” Parenti said.
Quinn replied that past meeting video “used to be readily available. Now it’s hidden behind OPRA requests.”
Freeman added, “It’s unfair to our admin or sometimes even if it’s a teacher,” when a meeting speaker gives only one side of an alleged incident.
“I would say it’s unfair to the public to remove it,” Quinn said. “This is a public record.”
“I must ask, why were we not in compliance with our policy for the past two and a half years?” he added. “It wasn’t being removed up until very recently.”
Board member Jeremiah Carnes sided with Quinn. “It’s not the best look for us as public servants,” Carnes said of meeting videos getting a quick hook.
“It’s not a good look for our admins when one side is brought up at the podium,” Freeman said. “I have had to work with the union to address where they’re being evaluated. It’s completely unfair to them.”
“People bash me all the time as the superintendent,” Freeman added. “Okay, it comes with the job. But our admins, they are protected. They are in a union. It is our job to ensure that their working conditions are something that they can work within.”
At one point, Freeman disputed the characterization that the videos were recently removed off the website, reasserting that the related policy was enacted in 2024.
In response to a comment by board member Justine Decker, Freeman strongly denied she was “coddling” staff.
The following evening, resident Kevin Redzinski criticized the removal of past meeting audio from the district website more than a year ago. The audio recordings went back seven or eight years, he said.
Redzinski called the removal “obstruction” and accused school officials of trying to limit information. “It’s not your information. It’s public information,” he said. “If you don’t like hearing from the public regarding your job, don’t get a job in the public sector cuz that’s how it works.” School officials did not respond to Redzinski.
Other Central Jersey school districts don’t appear to share the concerns of some Middlesex officials about leaving meeting video online indefinitely. A random review by Inside – Middlesex of four other nearby districts’ websites and/or YouTube channels found it common for them to include past board meeting videos.
Those districts do not have years’ worth of videos in sequential order. But they do have some public meetings from past years. In some cases, that includes remote sessions held via Zoom during the COVID-19 era.
The following were the dates for the oldest video still posted by nearby districts:
Bound Brook – April 2020
Bridgewater-Raritan – July 2021
Dunellen – May 2024
Piscataway – September 2021
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