Oxford school board to shrink size of committees

In a March 2, 2009 letter to the Oxford Township (Warren County) Board of Education, Walter Luers challenged the Board's procedure of staffing Board committees with three Board members. Luers asked that the Board either open its committee meetings to the public or reduce the number of Board members on a committee.

In its March 17, 2009 response, the Board said that they disagreed with Luers' suggestion that three Board members constituted an "effective majority" under the Sen. Byron M. Baer Open Public Meetings Act. Yet, it decided "to err on the side of caution" and reduce committee membership from three to two "to avoid the possibility of needless, budget-busting litigation."

The correspondence is on-line here.

John Paff
Somerset, New Jersey