Deer Lakes parents push for recording, posting school board meetings

Some parents want Deer Lakes School Board meetings to be video recorded for the public to see.

The topic caused tension in an otherwise routine board meeting Tuesday.

Leonard Verdetto III, a West Deer resident elected to the board almost two years ago, said his priority is transparency, and he spoke about the need for the meetings to be recorded so parents unable to make it to the meetings can stay informed.

“Most people don’t get to see how we vote or the discussion that takes place during these meetings and how local government is being done,” Verdetto said.

He recommended YouTube as a possible platform where previous meeting recordings can be hosted. He mentioned they were behind the times in comparison to other school districts like Pine-Richland.

“YouTube is free,” he said. “This is the ultimate form of transparency.”

His idea was met with opposition from other board members, who said they want to concentrate on students.

“If you agreed to something in a previous meeting and then shout from the mountaintop that you don’t agree with it, it is undermining to the board,” said Larry Neidig, board president.

“No one is against the idea, and we are trying to make it work,” said board member Kristi Minnick, who chairs the board’s finance and policy committees. She said the district would have to find money for expenses such as storing the videos and uploading them, which isn’t in the district’s budget.

Minnick was disappointed the debate interrupted her policy report, which included progress on recording meetings. She was disappointed, she said, that Verdetto didn’t bring up his grievances at policy committee meetings even though he participated in them.

“I feel you’re going to use this as a political weapon on social media to say the board was against it,” she said.

Verdetto’s motion to add a vote to the next meeting agenda, on recording the meetings and making the video recordings public, was not seconded.

Verdetto said for transparency he has discussions on two Facebook groups — a private Deer Lakes parents group and the Deer Lakes School District Discussion page.

Alicia Parker, a mother of three who recently purchased a home in East Deer with her husband, recorded the entire meeting on her phone.

She uploads her recordings to the Deer Lakes School District Discussion page on Facebook. She has been recording meetings since 2022, after a safety issue at her daughter’s bus stop. She said she was not satisfied with the district’s response even though she brought crash reports from PennDOT to the school board meetings.

“It is a problem that the meetings are not video recorded,” Parker said.

“People should have the opportunity to stay informed. The weight of the board’s choices affects my family.”

Parker said the video recordings would create accessibility for working families, senior citizens or people with disabilities to view meetings at their leisure.

She also said the recordings would create further accountability.

Lucas Gray of West Deer, who spoke at the meeting via Zoom, said he’s in favor of recording meetings.

“Regular meetings need to be posted,” Gray said.

“We are behind the curve when it comes to communication. … This would allow parents to stay informed and increase community involvement.”

Recording and posting meetings would require a policy change by the board. That would entail a first and second reading before a board vote could be taken for the policy to be adopted, according to Neidig.

Some parents and board members also have concerns about YouTube’s security measures, he said.

“The board chose to send this to the policy committee, and they are working on it, and we know they will come up with a good recommendation,” Neidig said.

The next policy committee meeting is at 2 p.m. April 24. The board hopes to be able to record and publicize the May and June meetings.