Deer Lakes School Board resistant to posting meetings online, says member Leonard Verdetto

People who can’t tune in live to the Deer Lakes School Board meetings are out of luck, according to new board member Leonard Verdetto.

The board meets the second and third Tuesdays of each month in the high school library.

Meetings are available live on Zoom, through which people can participate in the public comment section.

But meetings are not accessible afterward, and Verdetto wants that changed.

He wants families to be able to watch at their convenience, either on YouTube or on the district’s website.

“If a parent misses one, they’re left in the dark on agenda items,” Verdetto said. “People want to know the details and who said what. This holds me accountable on how I vote and the rest of the board, too.”

Verdetto proposed the change at a recent meeting, but failed to get enough support for a vote.

None of the remaining eight board members responded to requests for comment.

“I don’t understand the resistance to this,” Verdetto said, adding there would be no cost to the district.

Earlier this month, Aspinwall Council voted to post its meetings online. Members said it’s a way for residents to keep on top of the action at their convenience.

“It was something that’s been important to me since I decided to run for council and something that seemed to resonate with people,” Aspinwall Councilman Mark Chimel said. “Just looking for ways to get more people to feel like they know what’s going on in the borough.”

Posting meetings online has become more common for municipalities and school boards post-pandemic.

Tarentum Council makes its meetings available on YouTube, as do Allegheny Valley and Fox Chapel Area school boards.

Not all boards are amenable to the process, however.

Indiana Township supervisors in February voted down an attempt to live­stream meetings.

Deer Lakes spokesperson Shawn Annarelli said the state’s Right-to-Know Act provides the public the right to request public records by submitting the appropriate form to Brad Snyder, the district’s open records officer.

For meetings to be posted, district policies would need to be updated, Annarelli said.

“Policy committee meetings are advertised as required by the Sunshine Act,” he said. “The board of school directors would have to follow the policy committee process and vote in a public voting meeting to make any policy changes to allow for public meeting recordings to be posted online.”

Verdetto said making the meetings accessible would be transformative.

“I ran my campaign on the main issue of transparency,” he said. “I knocked on almost 2,000 doors. Residents want to know what’s happening.”