Free speech is one of our most important rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution.

But free speech by elected officials has become a contentious issue concerning members of the Butler Area School Board.

A new social media policy for the district’s elected officials was approved Monday night.

Board members now are formally discouraged from using their social media accounts “to communicate with the public regarding the board and board-related business,” pending school business or answering questions about business.

The policy originated from ongoing disputes over posts by board member Bill Halle.

Halle frequently posts his thoughts on board business and board members on his Facebook page.

Other board members want to make sure people are getting accurate information about meetings, not just one member’s opinion.

Forget picking a winner in this fight: There are easy ways to make their meetings and business more accessible that don’t involve limiting board members’ online habits:

Record or livestream meetings online. Plenty of government bodies do this routinely and cheaply. Free services such as Youtube or Facebook Live also can be used to keep the public informed. Doing this allows everyone access to what is happening.

Find a way to get minutes online faster. The district often lags in posting its meeting minutes online.

Hold executive sessions after public meetings. The board usually publishes, as is legally required, a 6 p.m. work session and a 7:30 p.m. regular session. However, the board almost always goes into a different room and holds an executive session between the meetings. Those executive sessions almost always last well past 7:30 p.m. On the rare occasion someone actually comes to the regular 7:30 p.m. meeting, they usually are sitting around a mostly empty room waiting for the board to show up for 15 minutes of official business.

While we respect that Halle wants to keep residents of the district informed about district business, oftentimes his posts create more political hostility than understanding.

This is not right to personally attack fellow board members through social media.

Public bodies should be transparent and discuss issues in a public, open forum.

We feel people should be able to talk to their elected officials however they want.

If the Butler school board wants their meetings to be the main way people learn about their work, then steps should be taken to ensure those meetings are more available to the average person.

— JGG