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The closer school officials looked, the more flaws they saw in having students tape meetings to air on cable.
By BARBARA BEHRENDT
© St. Petersburg Times, published February 20, 2001
INVERNESS -- The Citrus County School Board has never had a moment in the broadcast spotlight. And it looks like that won't change anytime soon.
School district staffers have recommended dropping a proposal to have high school TV production students tape the board meetings for later airing on local cable networks. In a memo to Superintendent David Hickey last week, David Watson, executive director of management services, recounted a variety of concerns that he said should scuttle the idea.
In January, Watson told the School Board that having cable companies tape the meetings could be expensive. The district would have to pay the cable company to tape the meetings, a move that would cost nearly $10,000 a year; in addition, the school system also might have to upgrade the sound system and lighting in the board's meeting room to improve broadcast picture and sound quality.
Board member Carol Snyder, who said she was less concerned about the quality of the picture than she was with citizen access to board activity, had proposed televising the meetings.
Since the idea was discussed, several people have told the board they support broadcasting the meetings.
But board members have expressed concerns. What if a speaker discussed private information in front of the cameras? What if school staffers became nervous speaking to the board?
Snyder suggested that the district explore getting students involved in the TV production. In his memo to Hickey, Watson noted that there would be some positive aspects to that plan: exposing students to the political decisionmaking process and allowing them to apply their skills to a real-world situation.
But there were drawbacks, as well. Watson noted that the videos would not be of broadcast quality, which was important to both the Time Warner and Adelphia cable companies.
"They felt that a low-quality product broadcast on their airways would be a reflection on them," Watson wrote.
Neither company could provide a live broadcast of the meeting without running additional cable to the District Services Center, the Inverness building where the board meetings are held.
Watson also noted that only two of the high schools felt capable of handling the project, and each was already overwhelmed with taping requests.
Editing the tapes also could pose problems because one school did not have the capability, the job can be time-consuming and neither school wanted the responsibility of making editing decisions.
Other concerns included needing to tie the district's sound system in with the equipment used by the students and logistical problems with transporting and setting up the expensive equipment, which could be lost or damaged.
In addition, students involved would have to provide their own transportation, an instructor would have to be present and "asking students and instructors to stay for long meetings ending late at night would be an unreasonable request," Watson wrote.