PARENTS WANT MORE BOARD ACCESS: PUTTING SCHOOL MEETINGS ON TV PROPOSED TO RAISE PARTICIPATION.

Byline: Sonia Giordani Daily News Staff Writer

Cheryl Heitmann calls herself a regular. Every other Tuesday night, the 11-year Westlake Village resident and mother of three takes the same seat among the sparse audience in the Conejo Valley school district's boardroom.

She enjoys listening to school principals talk about their new programs and student representatives make their biweekly reports about their classmates' and schools' most recent achievements.

``I think it is really important for members in a community to be aware of what goes on and how decisions are made - these are things we all pay for,'' Heitmann said. ``But a lot of people and parents in particular have a hard time getting there. They are trying to start dinner, make sure the kids start on their homework, get their kids to soccer practice.''

While the biweekly meetings draw some of the most passionate education advocates to the board's chambers, more seats in the audience remain vacant than filled. Wishing to draw wider attendance, some have suggested moving the meeting to another day or to another time.

Heitmann, however, is pushing the district to televise the meetings on Thousand Oaks public access. If parents can't attend the meeting, at least they should be able to tune them in. She has gotten the backing of such groups as the American Association of University Women and various Parent Teacher Associations and has prompted the school district to re-evaluate preliminary estimates of how much videotaping a board meeting would cost.

Preliminary reports completed several years ago show a start-up price tag of about $50,000 - a figure that pretty much holds true today, said Richard Simpson, assistant superintendent of instructional services who has also been researching the costs of videotaping the sessions.

``Someone could come in and use a hand-held video camera, but to go out with broadcast quality it would require more. So to get the equipment needed to go live with a good, quality broadcast would require a minimum of about $50,000,'' he said.

Parent Debbie Gregory said she thinks a lesser-quality broadcast would be better than no broadcast at all. Like some civic-oriented parents in the district, Gregory said some Tuesday night meetings pose a dilemma because residents have to choose between the school board meeting - which begins at 7 p.m. every other Tuesday - and the City Council meeting, scheduled for 6 p.m. every week.

Council on TV

The City Council meetings are already broadcast repeatedly on the city's public access channel, so residents can choose to attend school board meetings every other Tuesday night and watch the city council meetings on television at a later time. Additionally, the district keeps audio recordings of board meetings for its own records and transcription needs.

But Gregory said she would like to see both meetings offered on television.

``It would be just another chance to let the community know about the good things in the district as well as the problem areas,'' she said.

But most want to bolster attendance and awareness of local schools' needs - some note that parents and residents generally stay out of school district issues unless their own children or neighborhoods will be affected.

``Maybe we just have to accept that people will turn out when the issue is vital to them. Talk about new school boundaries and the audience will be so packed you can barely move through the room,'' said April Aubery, mother of two and chairwoman of the District Advisory Committee.

``The question is, if we televise the meeting, will people actually watch?''

Like many parents who have watched a growing factionalism divide the City Council, Aubery said many in the district are cautious about televising the school board meetings for fear of inviting the same factionalism into the Conejo Vaelley Unified School District boardroom.

Board trustee Mildred Lynch agrees.

She said a televised recording of the meeting could introduce an attitude of performance during public comment and board response time rather than foster the intelligent discussion needed to make important decisions for the city and its residents.

``I watch the City Council meetings on television. I never know what to expect,'' she said. ``Anyone has the right to stand up during public comment and tell us what they think. But the point isn't to turn the meetings into a show or performance.''

Scheduled conflict

Hoping to draw more residents to district meetings, Trustee Elaine McKearn said even a small change like making the start time 7:30 p.m. could help.

``During the earlier hour, parents are still dealing with our kids - picking them up from soccer practice, trying to get them to eat, making sure they start their homework,'' McKearn said. Although she voted in favor of changing the meetings from Thursday to Tuesday, she now is pushing for another change in dates to help alleviate the conflict with the City Council meeting.

``I guess there is no good day for the board meeting. The city council is on Tuesday and we didn't like Thursdays. Too many holidays fall on Mondays, and Fridays are out. That leaves Wednesday,'' said McKearn, who in recent weeks has been pushing for a change to Wednesday and a later hour for the meeting.

When the school board voted to move its meetings from Thursday nights to Tuesdays, Lynch cast the sole opposing vote. Lynch said she saw no good reason for the change to Tuesdays.

Some have accused the board of changing the meeting date to intentionally conflict with the City Council meeting to keep regulars to the city's public comment segment from attending the school board meetings.

But board Vice President Richard Newman, who made the motion for the change, said he did it solely because he preferred holding meetings earlier in the week.

``I felet it would give district staff more working days to disseminate information and the board's decisions to the schools and to prepare reports following the meeting,'' he said.

The fact that residents have to choose their forum every other Tuesday night has proven something of an ancillary benefit, he added.

``People have to choose which stage they want to perform on, and that's their prerogative. But I frankly think kids are better served when we don't turn our forum into a circus and when we keep out all the histrionics,'' he said.

For many parents, the change from Thursdays to Tuesdays did not make much of a difference - the regulars continued to come, Aubrey said.

``OK, school board meetings are not horrendously riveting, but they are interesting. When I started going to them years ago, I got a better handle on the process and how the whole system worked,'' she said.