The New Westminster board of education meetings are about to get even livelier.
The board is now live streaming its meetings through the City of New Westminster's website, which means parents and other interested stakeholders can watch the board meetings - held at city hall - from the comfort of their home.
"You can watch it at home with a glass of red wine, or white wine - whatever your preference is," board chair Michael Ewen said.
The meetings aren't precisely in real time, but it's close. There will be about a five-minute delay, Ewen said.
Live streaming the meetings is something Ewen said he's wanted to do for two years, but was told it would cost the district money.
"It turns out there isn't a cost to it," he said. "Anyway, we got the chance to live stream it. It turns out it's very straightforward. If we don't have an operator there, it's one-camera wide ... the audio is fairly good, the picture is internet-streaming quality."
A city hall staff member asked the school district if it wanted to live stream the meetings, which are usually held in city hall chambers. The City of New Westminster live streams its city council meetings.
"I'm so thrilled, it's one way that we can reach out to folks who want to actually watch this but don't want to come out to meetings," Ewen said.
To access the archived video stream visit the city's website at www.newwestcity.ca, click on the Council Video Coverage link, click either Live Player or Archive player and select the meeting date in the red font, click on Search and then click the School Board meeting.
Ewen said he wants to archive the meetings onto the school district's website.
"We would set up a link on the school board site then people could watch the meetings over and over again at their pleasure," he said with a chuckle.
