I like being involved in town committees and volunteer projects, and I'm lucky that my somewhat flexible schedule, and children, allow me to attend a good number of municipal meetings. It's amazing how much gets done in our towns at some of these meetings, not to mention the amount you learn by attending, or otherwise viewing, on a regular basis.

I've never felt compelled to personally attend a school board meeting, probably because my own experiences with the district schools, and those of my 7-year-old son, have been nothing but positive, and exceeding my expectations in virtually every way.

From my perspective, the whole team over there appears to have cultivated a veritable secret garden of elementary education, a place from which my occasionally standoffish child seems to emerge each year having learned all the things he wasn't the least bit interested in hearing from me.

The teachers, school board, and administrators clearly haven't needed any help from me beyond filling out permission slips and voting yes on the budget once a year! Still, even though I’ve never been compelled to say anything more than thank you to our school boards, I always assumed the option to watch the meetings online would be available.

I benefited from watching several meetings of the Middle School Building Committee that I found on the Camden town website, and thus assumed that the School Board meetings themselves would surely be recorded, too. The ability to view something for yourself rather than relying on second- or third-hand accounts of who said what is an invaluable service for any citizen or journalist. Even though Camden's system could use some updating and expanding, I'm thankful that our elected officials (and even some of the volunteer committees) have embraced the practice of recording meetings and made it a priority to do so.

In my first year on the Budget Committee I learned from the Select Board, and those more experienced in municipal matters, that our job is not to comment on the School Budget.

‘It’s an entirely separate system over there and we have no control over what they do,’ I've often been told.

While that may be true to a certain extent, it doesn't mean we shouldn't pay attention, not because we are suspicious or eager to criticize but because we may be missing opportunities to work together and do things better. When I finally got around to reading what our Town Charter has to say about the Budget Committee, I found this: "A committee of citizens, representing all sections of the Town, to cooperate with the Select Board, Town Manager, treasurer, superintendent of schools, and chief of the fire department, in making recommendations concerning all articles in the warrant, especially those calling for appropriations..."

Maybe I'll have to start going to School Board meetings after all because this quite clearly indicates that the original intent was for the Budget Committee to be interested in far more than just the municipal side of things. It was meant to help residents make decisions on how to vote, which is one reason I feel strongly that we should make a recommendation on the new Middle School proposal. All Camden voters would benefit from having the Budget Committee flush out the details and weigh in (they could even watch our meetings online and so would the press). For the record, in case you're wondering, I will be voting yes this time (even though I voted no the first time around and it took quite a few hours of reading and discussing to change my mind). The recent push to have some of those meetings live streamed has been helpful for those of us who are maxed out in terms of attending meetings in person.

When I cannot attend Select Board meetings, I usually try to watch the archived recording on the town website. Sometimes it's more like background noise while I fold laundry than something I'm actively "watching", but I almost always learn something useful or interesting. People in town would have a fit if this service were not available, and rightly so.

It is essential that these meetings be accessible for the general public, and just as importantly, that they be recorded and available to journalists. Many reporters rely on the live or archived video of municipal meetings when they can't be there in person, and the public relies on these reporters to write articles that help us make informed decisions. The added benefit is of course that everyone also seems to behave better when they're being recorded, both board members and the public!

Sixty percent of our property taxes in Camden support the schools, and I pay my portion with gratitude and joy. There's a lot that we can learn from our schools in this community, even as adults. I often think about how much better things would be if the town of Camden could manage to put out a simple and reliable newsletter to update its citizens just like the schools manage to do so successfully for parents. However, when it comes to this one issue, we should be asking for the same level of transparency and public access to meetings from the School Boards as we get from our Select Boards. In the long term, everyone benefits from a community that is better connected to its schools, even if it's a small hassle in the short term. We don't need state of the art technology to get this done.

I believe Camden and Rockport would happily provide the meeting space if needed, and many organizations are accomplishing the task with a free YouTube account, an iPhone, and a decent microphone.

Alison McKellar lives in Camden