This week, the Antioch Unified School District announced that they have placed audio recordings of the school board meetings online for the public to review.
The move comes after the District has had preliminary discussions off and on the past year on how to provide the public with more information as well as becoming more transparent.
Superintendent Stephanie Anello credited Joseph Gengler, manager of technology, and also a graduate of Antioch High School, with taking the recordings and finding a way to place it online in the cheapest and fastest way possible.
“We are here to serve the community and our students. Giving those who may not be able to attend a school board meeting access to the recording is reflective of the steps we are taking to be more transparent and open. The more community members and parents know about current District initiatives, etc. the better informed they will be to support us and to hold us accountable if need be,” said Anello.
A few weeks ago, Diane Gibson-Gray, Board President, had reason to request a copy of the audio and after finding out how easy it is to post and view, she asked Superintendent Anello to work with the new IT Manager to post the audio after each board meeting.
“I have not been against videotaping the meetings, only the expense to do so, staff time to explore and implement and what could be a cost of upwards of $200k to have a system such as the City of Antioch’s; this would take away money from the classrooms. This quick solution will provide the public with as much information as possible about our meetings and what is discussed and is a zero cost solution versus an expensive video option,” said Gibson-Gray.
On Wednesday night during the school board meeting, Trustee Walter Ruehlig requested a future agenda item to discuss the idea of broadcasting the meetings either on television or over the internet–preliminary costs for televising the meetings could run around $200,000.
Ruehlig requested that the idea of exploring televised meetings be discussed at a future agenda noting that last year when they were going to discuss the item, that they were transitioning with a new superintendent and that they thought the timing was not appropriate.
“If consensus is reached, I would be hoping we would ask staff to get to back to us with some research on options what live streaming would cost, what television broadcast would cost. What audio would cost. So if we were interested, we could choose a model,” said Ruehlig.
Trustee Debra Vinson stated she was hopeful they could “piggyback” off the Antioch City Council and use their facility and equipment.
“I am hopeful that once our technology is up we will be able to do our own thing,” said Vinson.
Diane Gibson-Gray pointed out that audio is now online for both the board and public, however, stated the item will come back as a future agenda item.
No timetable for when it will be discussed was announced.
