ROME — The continuation of their “Ask the BOE” virtual mailbox was deliberated Monday during the Rome City School District Board of Education’s regular meeting.

Board member Cassie Knutti brought the question to the board, asking if the single Ask the BOE email address for messages to all of the board members is truly an effective way to communicate with and address the concerns of district residents.

Board members cannot give definitive answers to any questions raised in the Ask the BOE communications, Knutti explained. Any official response would have to reflect the combined decision of the board majority, and would have to take place after an official meeting.

“We can give no opinion and no resolution because it’s an internal process,” Knutti said.

Board President Joseph Mellace said the creation of a single email mailbox was well-intentioned, but lately they are seeing its drawbacks. He added, however, that it should not be shut down without informing the public in advance. There is also a question of what is an action that would be taken by the board and what is an action that would be taken by the administration, Mellace added. Sometimes they receive messages that should have been taken up through administrators first, he said.

“Bringing it to us first is not the way to go,” Mellace said of those instances.

District Superintendent Peter Blake agreed, saying often matters can be resolved faster with a call or email straight to the administration itself.

“It can slow the process going to the wrong place,” Blake said.

Mellace said the Ask the BOE inquiries can even lead to board members responding and unintentionally giving out information that would more appropriately come from administration. Knutti suggested taking a look at what is received and deciding how many of the messages are actually regarding subjects that are within the purview of the board.

“I understand the idea behind it, but I feel it can undermine the administration,” Knutti said. Knutti also suggested a standard response message that would automatically be sent back thanking the sender and notifying them that their message would be addressed as appropriate.

Board member Kelly Carinci suggested an alternative to the batch email could be having the board hold its meetings at different schools within the district to improve their physical accessibility to all district residents. Some people are not able to drive to the board’s regular meeting location at the district offices, she explained, and mobile meetings might be able to reach more of their resident population.

Carinci echoed Mellace’s advice not to turn the Ask the BOE email off without a plan for what to do afterwards.

The board took no action on the future of the Ask the BOE mailbox, with Mellace encouraging the remaining board members to continue discussions with the new members coming to the board on July 1.

The batch email address is asktheBOE@romecsd.org. Residents with concerns can also contact individual members at any time ... there is a board of education member list with contact telephone numbers and email addresses for each of them currently on the district’s website at www.romecsd.org.