Move over Game of Thrones. The North Vancouver School District board meetings are coming soon to small screen near you.
After years of rejecting the idea of filming public board meetings, school trustees voted Sept. 19 to go ahead with video live streaming and archiving of meetings.
Costs to set up the wired-in audio-visual system and run it through a secure livestreaming service will be approximately $26,000 for the first year and between $6,000 and $7, 5000 per year after that.
Several trustees spoke enthusiastically about making their meetings more accessible to the public through video.
“I think it’s about engagement. I think it’s about continuing to grow with the times and communicate,” said Trustee Barry Forward
Trustee Susan Skinner, who took part in the meeting through teleconference, said the move is a worthwhile one to increase public engagement.
Skinner said she attended her first board meeting “with my youngest, who was a three-year-old, on my lap.” During the last municipal election campaign, Skinner said she heard from parents with young kids at home who had a hard time making it to meetings. “This is really the heart of what we’re doing.”
The vote to go ahead with live streaming of meetings came after debate on the issue that stretches back almost three years.
In December 2014, school administrators threatened to kick parent Shane Nelson out of a public board meeting for videotaping it. Trustees later climbed down from that position, and agreed that video recording should be allowed, but stopped short of providing the service themselves after balking at the price tag.
Nelson has logged numerous hours in the years since, videotaping board meetings on his own time and posting those to YouTube.
Following a vote of trustees in June, this summer school district staff looked into options for streaming and archiving meetings.
Those ranged from a relatively low-tech system of buying simple recording equipment at a cost of $5,000 and streaming for free on YouTube – like the Nanaimo School District does – to hardwiring higher quality equipment at a cost of about $17,000 and paying between $6,000 and $7,500 for a private, secure streaming service (similar to the one used by local municipal councils.)’
In the end, trustees opted for the deluxe version, pointing to the value of a system that could be easily integrated into existing technology and embedded into the website.
Trustees also opted to pay more for a private streaming service than give up rights to their videos or deal with associated advertising that comes with free posting on YouTube.
David Jennings, director of technology for the school district, warned trustees that once meetings are streamed online, there is little practical control over that material. “It’s being streamed live, so even if it’s on a Canadian server…a person from Puerto Rico could record it and put it wherever they want,” he said.
Superintendent Mark Pearmain said any students who make presentations at public board meetings have signed consent forms acknowledging they may be recorded.
Trustee Franci Stratton said she’d feel better if the school board meetings didn’t rely on YouTube posting. “Even though it’s a public meeting, I would hate to see the board meeting distorted and used for the wrong purposes and have students involved in that,” she said.
Trustee Cyndi Gerlach added she’s like the board to consider establishing a “safe zone” in board meetings where members of the public could sit if they didn’t want to be filmed.
The board passed a motion to go ahead with live streaming for a year, beginning later this fall when equipment is up and running. Gerlach was the sole vote against the motion.
