Sussex. The Sussex-Wantage Board of Education is considering adding a backup day for its monthly meetings after the December meeting was canceled due to a snowstorm.
Board of education member Coleen Ranzan asked if there were any way meetings can be switched to virtual meetings as a backup plan if the board can’t meet in person due to inclement weather.
The board passed December’s resolutions at its reorganizational meeting on Jan. 6 because of the missed meeting.
“Now we know we can do this, and I think it put personnel behind the eight-ball in January because we had to approve things now,” Ranzan said.
Board secretary Christina Riker said she could investigate planning a virtual meeting as a backup. The Open Public Meetings Act requires advertising notice for meetings, and Riker said the district may be able to include a backup link.
“But if it’s a snowstorm and the power is out, then we can’t do virtual either,” board president Nick D’Agostino said. “You can create any scenario where it gets worse and worse.”
School board member Dorothy Witte also suggested setting up a backup date after various issues caused the board to miss meetings in October and November 2019.
“I still do not believe why we don’t have an already prearranged backup date,” she said. “Chances are, we are not going to use that backup date, but if we need it, we have it.”