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Rainbow board to livestream meetings, but won't archive footage for later public viewing

Trustees haven't asked for livestreamed videos to be archived, board taking 'baby steps,' says director
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Five months after its first internal test of the technology, the Rainbow District School Board plans to livestream its Jan. 29 meeting.

Rainbow board director of education Norm Blaseg said the board initially hoped to start livestreaming at the December board meeting, but technical difficulties outside its control prevented this from happening.

“Barring any external challenges, we're absolutely going forward” Jan. 29, Blaseg said.

But if you want to watch the livestreamed meeting, you better log onto the school board's website right at 5 p.m., when the meeting starts, and be prepared to take notes or put your smartphone on record.

That's because the livestreamed meetings will not be archived on the board's website, and you won't be able to play them back at a later date.

Trustees have not asked for the livestreamed board meetings to be archived, Blaseg said.

“A decision has not been made at this time to archive any of the board meetings onto our website,” he said.

“This has not been a consideration. Our consideration at first was baby steps here. The first one was let's just livestream. Let's see how that works, and we'll see where we go from there.”

But archiving is something that could happen at a later date. “We'll see what happens,” Blaseg said. “Who knows? Maybe in the future we will.”

The board's 2017 move into its new, $7.3-million board office, located in the former Wembley Public School, made livestreaming the meetings possible. 

Livestreaming wasn't possible at the old downtown Sudbury board office because of the venue's limitations, Rainbow board chair Doreen Dewar told Sudbury.com in an interview about the subject last fall.

“When we realized we were going to be moving to a new board office, prior to any of the work being started, we said one of the things we wanted to make sure that we incorporated was the technology for livestreaming,” Dewar said.

Blaseg said he's not sure he can break down a cost for the livestreaming, as it's built in as part of the new boardroom. 

“When we built the infrastructure for the boardroom, it was to facilitate many things,” he said. “I can't actually say it would be just for livestreaming, or just for something else.”

Blaseg said he'd much rather see parents attend meetings in person, because they might miss the nuances of discussions. 

But he said he realizes livestreaming is a good “next best” option, as the board covers 15,000 square kilometres, including places such as Manitoulin Island, Espanola and Massey. 

Dewar said last fall said she hopes the livestreaming takes away barriers to supporters engaging in school board meetings, and that parents actually tune in, although she has her doubts.

“I haven't heard a lot of parents telling me 'You know, if it was on TV, I would watch it,'” she said. “I haven't heard it.”

Blaseg expressed a similar sentiment. “To be quite honest, we had very few people requesting this service,” he said. “It will be interesting to see how many folks are actually participating.”

The move to livestreaming comes after years of debate surrounding the use of recording technology at Rainbow board meetings.

The board famously passed a rule in 2012 that allowed only members of the media and individuals who have permission from the director of education to video-record board meetings.

It also barred a couple critical of the board who used to video-record school board meetings from certain school board property for almost six years, up until last fall. 

Those parents, Dylan and Anita Gibson, ran to become Rainbow board trustees in both the 2014 and 2018 school board elections, with Anita ultimately elected a trustee last October.

In early 2013, the board also voted down the idea of video-recording meetings and posting the video on the Rainbow board's website after the fact, with staff saying it would cost about $13,000 per year.

The livestreaming of Rainbow board meetings has been the subject of some discussion in the past, especially during the 2014 trustee elections.

Asked if livestreaming would quell complaints of lack of transparency at the Rainbow board, Dewar said last fall these comments all come from the same small group of people.

“(It's) the same 10 to 12 parents all the time” talking about transparency issues, she said.

“I've gone to school council meetings and met with different parents and parent councils and so on. I don't hear that very often. I hear it from the same dozen or so people.”


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