Pembina Hills trustees passed a motion during their Aug. 25 meeting to continue recording their board meetings and posting those recordings to Facebook for the duration of the 2021-2022 school year, except in those instances where privacy concerns or technical difficulties make it impossible.
Board chair Jennifer Tuininga said that once the agenda for the Aug. 25 meeting was posted to the Pembina Hills website, it was pointed out that the board had a motion directing the livestreaming of board meetings over Facebook for the 2020-2021 school year, but not the 2021-2022 school year.
She noted that technically, the Aug. 25 meeting was actually the first meeting of the 2021-2022 school year, but because people were used to seeing the meetings livestreamed, they decided to do that anyway.
“Going forward, if we want to continue livestreaming, we do need a motion to do that for the coming school year,” she said.
In terms of who watches the livestream, it was estimated that between seven to 10 people watch at least a portion of each meeting, potentially tuning in for just certain parts. (Incidentally, that 7-10 figure does not include the board.)
Trustee Wendy Scinski asked if it was “problematic” to actually livestream the meetings, pointing out that the special meeting held on Aug. 19 had to recorded and then posted online after it was done because the livestreaming simply wouldn’t work.
It was explained to the trustees that it takes only a few minutes for the livestreaming over Facebook to be set up, and that their technical staff only needed to intercede when there were problems.
That said, the actual quality of the livestreaming has not been very consistent, and it was easier to simply record the meetings and then post them online later on.
Trustee Kerry McElroy said he liked the idea of recording meetings and then posting them online later, as that way the public was getting to see every meeting instead of every second meeting.
While there was some concern over privacy as it related to the recording of meetings held at schools, Supt. Dave Garbutt suggested that they should still record things like the principal’s report because those are part of the public meeting.
Garbutt the real plus of recording and then posting the meetings is how it accommodates transparency.
Tuining agreed, adding that she believed this was a great way to encourage people who are interested in division affairs to actually view board meetings, as attending in-person may not always be possible.
Trustee Jackie Comeau pointed out that if they record meetings instead of livestreaming them, then those recordings have to be posted online fairly quickly.
However, it was noted that with the Aug. 19 special meeting, the recording of that discussion was posted online the same day.
Ultimately, McElroy put forward the motion that the board record its meetings and post them whenever possible for the rest of the year. It was passed unanimously.
