Televising board proceedings.

The proliferation of school district television programs, access to a local cable channel and the relatively low cost of production has continued to bring the question of televising school board meetings to many board members and superintendents.

The North Penn School District in Lansdale, Pa., began televising school board meetings in the fall of 1993. Interestingly enough, the initiative was proposed by a local taxpayer association that wanted the district to videotape the meetings for airing on cable television. That initiative essentially led to what is now known as North Penn Television.

I came on board with North Penn at that time to start up this TV channel for the school district with our primary objective of televising school board meetings. Since then we have taped every school board work session and action meeting without fail.

Live or Tape

All of our meetings are taped and do not go live to the public. However, the tape is never edited and coverage is always from gavel to gavel.

Airing the meeting via tape delay is something of a moot point for us. The meetings are aired as if they are live.

One argument for going live would be to let the community view the proceedings as if they we there at the event. In theory, more people would stay home to watch the meeting instead of coming out. Typically, local reporters outnumber the community members. A hot topic like redrawing school boundaries, however, will draw hundreds of concerned parents.

It's also conceivable that someone watching the meeting live at home might feel compelled to drive down to the district headquarters to make a public comment.

Brian Reagan, director of television at nearby Upper Merion, Pa., Area School District, doesn't believe televising board meetings has affected the length of public comments, but it has changed the attendance at meetings. "If you don't count district employees, we rarely have 10 members of the public in attendance," Reagan says. "I honestly feel that after years of televising our meetings they run exactly as they would even if the cameras were not present."

D. Michael Frist, North Penn Board secretary and the director of finance, sees no impact on public comments due to the televising of the meeting. "Those who want to communicate to the board will attend," he says.

Committee Structure

Several years back, the North Penn school board started a committee structure where topics could be discussed more openly and less formally than at a full work session of the board. Recommendations move from committee to the work session and then to the board's action meeting for a possible vote. Under this format, our full board meetings have become much shorter.

In the neighboring Colonial School District, where school board meetings have been televised live for more than 20 years, committee meetings are not taped, contributing to much less formal discussions of issues and proposed ventures. "The responses are more genuine and less calculated, as one might expect," says Vincent Cotter, Colonial's superintendent.

The topic of televising committee meetings does come up from time to time at North Penn, but the board has decided to keep the cameras off in order to keep the meetings less formal. Robert Hassler, North Penn's superintendent, believes the current structure provides the time necessary for the administration to answer questions, research the needed information and then modify the initial recommendations when necessary.

Unfiltered Messages

In most cases, school districts do not have a distinct list of ground rules for televised meetings that differ from any public meeting in the district. It's important to remind board members to refrain from arguing with community members during a meeting because those testy exchanges will be replayed several times on cable. On the technical end, we need to be certain all board members and audience participants use a microphone, allowing viewers at home to hear the comments.

Overall, televising school board meetings seems to have made our community much more knowledgeable about how a school district conducts business. Our community members are well informed and educated about district programs and initiatives. While there is no direct way to measure viewership, community members may reference information they obtained while watching a televised board meeting.

"There is a greater opportunity to reach the community at-large through televised meetings, especially when re-broadcast," Hassler says. "The public can get the full story, and many times the correct story, that is not always printed in the press."

Our board president, Vincent Sherpinsky, adds, "I think televising our meetings is the best form of open government. Our community can see and hear our comments, actions and votes for themselves. It is hard enough to get people involved. At least when someone stops me at the grocery store and says, 'I watch your meetings on TV all the time,' I know people care about what is going on."

Robert Gillmer is coordinator of communications media services with the North Penn School District, 401 E. Hancock St., Lansdale, PA 19446. E-mail: [e-mail]