Folks will soon be able to watch the board of education in action from the comfort of their own home.
Trustees gave the green light to a plan to live stream the meetings at Tuesday night’s operations policy and planning committee meeting.
It will cost the district an estimated $2,900 to buy the equipment necessary to start broadcasting the meetings, including $900 to purchase a camera and tripod, $1,200 for a microphone and $800 for an HDMI capture card, according to the report.
Staff would arrange the camera start (and stop) the broadcast, and the plan is to use the district’s Google Education account to stream the meetings live on its YouTube channel.
This will be a four-month pilot project to gauge the public’s interest in the initiative. If, after four months, trustees want to make changes to the hardware or software used, that’ll be decided then.
If there’s enough interest from the public during the four-month trial period, staff will review the project to determine if any improvements or modifications should be made. If no one tunes in, the equipment can be used in a school.
Staff also recommended a communication plan be established to make sure everyone in the community knows about the live stream and will also develop a way for the public to provide feedback on quality and accessibility.
The proposal comes three months after trustee Mary Lalji put forward a motion to have staff investigate the feasibility of live streaming public meetings “as part of its commitment to transparency, accountability and accessibility.”
Her motion was supported unanimously by her fellow trustees.
