It is to be hoped that members of the Butler School Board will use a newly enacted policy on speaker phone voting only on rare occasions.

Board members should be at a meeting in person when important issues such as budgets, tax increases, bond issues or refinancings are being voted upon — even routine business matters. They should be present to hear any comments or concerns that might be presented by taxpayers prior to the vote, and to hear other board members' comments.

Despite the new policy's restrictions, it could be an incentive for some board members to schedule their vacations when such potentially controversial issues as raising taxes are before the board.

From now on, if, how many times, when and why a board member voted by speaker phone should be asked by voters when an incumbent school director is seeking re-election.

The new policy is acceptable from the standpoint of allowing voting when a board member is hospitalized. It is not acceptable when the excuse is that the board member is on vacation.

The bottom line is that the policy contains a window for shirking one's attendance obligations to the taxpayers when heated issues are on the agenda. Butler board members should resist any such temptation.

In fact, the board would do taxpayers a service by repealing the policy and returning to effect the policy that worked well in the past — no attendance, no vote.

In adopting the new policy on Monday, the board noted a state Supreme Court decision that allows such meeting participation.

Specifically, the new policy says a board member has the option of voting by telephone when he or she is unable to attend because of medical issues, work or vacation.

According to the board, the policy allows a board member to vote only twice in a calendar year by telephone. But barring instances of documented hospitalization, that is two times too many.

Meanwhile, if establishing a quorum is the main issue behind the new policy, the board should simply reschedule a meeting for a time when a quorum can be present. Seldom is there a meeting that requires emergency action.

Adoption of the policy comes at a good time for judging whether it will work against the best interests of the taxpayers. The school board is scheduled to vote on a 2006-07 budget that includes a 4.5-mill tax increase at 7:30 p.m. Monday in the senior high school auditorium. If the tax increase is approved, it will mark the eighth year in a row that the board will have increased taxes.

All nine board members should be in attendance Monday to cast their votes on the new $82.3 million spending plan and the tax rate that will help finance it.