Los Lunas Board of Ed considering streaming meetings

LOS LUNAS — The Los Lunas Schools Board of Education might soon start live streaming its meetings.

Frank Otero, the former board president, said during a recent meeting that live streaming has become a trend in conducting public meetings and it would provide more transparency of the Los Lunas Board of Education.

“We, as a board, are trying to do the best we can to reach out to the public,” Otero said.

The board has looked at different avenues to persuade more people to attend the board’s meetings, but often there are issues keeping people from attending the meetings. Live streaming would provide them with an alternative. The idea of live streaming the meetings was brought to the board’s attention by member Brandon Campanella, who wanted to discuss it.

“School board meetings aren’t the most exciting thing going on out there and unless your school is being presented or a student being acknowledged, there’s not a lot of interest it would seem,” Campanella said.

He also said there is a lot of misinformation or miscommunication about matters in the school district, especially on social media.

“I think streaming would not only give us more transparency, it would also allow parents and community members who are unable to attend because of working hours or commuting they haven’t had the time to watch what’s going on would have a chance to go back and view it at their convenience.

“That would help dispel a lot of the misconceptions out there about what is going on, what was being said, what was voted on,” Campanella continued.

The question is how the district would set up a live stream and how much it would cost for cameras and other equipment to be set up.

Board secretary Sonya C’Moya said she agrees with the live streaming idea and suggested students in the digital media arts program set it up.

The other board members also seemed to be on board with live streaming their meetings.

“This is giving the public an opportunity to get the words out of the horse’s mouth, if you will,” said Brian Smith, then vice president. “That way the data is straight and then everybody knows what was said at the meeting. Then, if they have an opinion on it, they can voice it, but at least they have the facts.”

Board member Milo Moody thought it was a wonderful idea, he said.

“People often can’t attend board meetings because of busy work schedules and this would give them another option,” he said.

Superintendent Dana Sanders and officials in finance and IT briefly discussed the capability, she said, but they did not get as far as cost and equipment. The added they would like to do research on how other districts and organizations are operating live streaming, explore the possibility of students in the digital media program running the operation, and look into what the costs would be, then bring it back to the board for further discussion.