The Jefferson City Board of Education will revisit the issue of livestreaming the public forum portion of board meetings after the Policy Review Committee agreed Thursday to develop a document that would outline a plan for streaming the full meeting using technology that would protect student information.
Communications Director Ryan Burns has said the Board of Education has previously excluded the public forum portion of board meetings from the livestream in order to protect student information, according to previous News Tribune reporting.
The board decided in August to refer the livestreaming open forum issue to the Policy Review Committee after board member Brad Bates brought it up and noted the board has been called anti-transparent for not streaming the full meeting.
Bates said he had spoken with a Missouri School Boards’ Association policy attorney who said she wasn’t aware of any other districts that exclude the public forum section from the livestream.
In 2016, a proposal to begin streaming board meetings was rejected by the board amid concerns about privacy during the open forum section and financial concerns about the cost of audio and video equipment, but livestreaming was later adopted in 2017.
Interim Chief of Operations Dawn Berhorst presented two options for extending livestreaming to the open forum. The first option would be to record the entire meeting, edit afterward if any staff or student information needed to be removed, then post the edited video. The other option would require a piece of equipment that would allow for about a 30-second delay in the stream, and the operator could hit a mute or beep button if comments strayed into a violation of student or staff privacy. The equipment and training together would cost $4,000, Berhorst said. Berhorst believed the equipment would be portable.
Prior to discussion of livestreaming, Lindsey Rowden, policy chairwoman, reminded the group school board meetings have been held in several different locations during the past months.
“Whatever we decide to do, we need to pick a location,” she said. “Whatever we decide to do, and whatever equipment that we choose to do, it needs to be in one location.”
The Policy Review Committee was willing to move forward with a plan to livestream with a safety caveat.
Board President Ken Enloe said, “I’m comfortable with us doing it, I’ve always said I’m comfortable with us doing that, if we have the capability to put that safeguard in place, that we don’t allow student or staff names and information to get out there.”
Enloe noted it was not codified in board policy that the board does not stream the open forum portion, but it was just an established precedent.
Superintendent Larry Linthacum added, “Our school board meetings are for school business … we don’t want an open forum to replace or in lieu of good discussions, of meetings.”
Berhorst said it was possible that if approved, the streaming equipment could be ready to go as soon as January, but realistically February seemed more plausible.