OPINION: Superintendent Aderhold repeatedly invokes the word TRANSPARENCY when communicating with the West Windsor–Plainsboro community. Residents should judge that commitment by the information his administration makes available before decisions are made

The November 17 Board of Education agenda provides another reason to question whether those words match the practice.

The Board is being asked to approve budget adjustments numbered 192–214. Yet the supporting materials available for public review, as identified so far, do not provide the detailed schedule explaining those adjustments. What amounts are involved? Which accounts are losing money, and which are receiving it? Why are these changes necessary?

These are basic questions about the management of public money. Residents should not have to chase down the answers.

A public vote does not, by itself, make a decision transparent. Residents can watch Board members approve a numbered list and still have no meaningful understanding of what they have authorized. An open meeting offers limited accountability when the financial details needed to evaluate a proposal are missing.

Perhaps Board members have received the complete adjustment schedule. If so, why isn’t that same information readily available to the taxpayers whose money they oversee?

This is how an administration keeps the community at arm’s length: residents are invited to attend, listen and comment, but lack the information necessary to ask informed questions before the vote. The opportunity to speak means less when the substance of the decision remains out of reach.

Aderhold’s administration should publish the complete schedule for adjustments 192–214, including the dollar amounts, account codes, understandable descriptions and reasons for each change. The Board should ensure residents have reasonable time to review that information before approving the adjustments.

Budget adjustments may be routine. Explaining them should be routine, too.

The Board also has an independent responsibility here. Its members represent the community. They should insist that the public can understand the financial actions placed before them, rather than accept an agenda reference as sufficient disclosure.

If Aderhold wants the community to trust his commitment to transparency, he needs to make the details accessible before the decisions are made. Transparency is demonstrated through disclosure, explanation and a willingness to answer questions.

Taxpayers deserve more than a public seat at a vote they cannot meaningfully evaluate.