Lincoln School Committee to tape meetings

Footage will be made available online to ‘better engage the public’

LINCOLN — The Lincoln School Committee is soon going to start having its meetings video-recorded and available online for the public to watch.

“I see the vehicle as an opportunity to better engage the public in a more timely manner,” said Vice Chair Joseph Goho, who put the issue on the agenda for this past week's meeting. But he did note that the cost was a bit more than he anticipated.

The School Committee voted 5-1 to award the bid to the Cranston-based company ClerkBase, which has an initial cost of $1,500 and monthly cost of $750.

The School Department gave specifications to five vendors, Business Manager Lori Miller said, but only ClerkBase and Granicus responded. Granicus' bid included an initial cost of $5,400 and monthly cost of $940.

John LaFleur was absent from this week's School Committee meeting, and Julie Zito was the lone member to vote against the awarding of the bid.

“I know this has been discussed on the committee, but have we asked for any community input?” she questioned. “We're talking about a lot of money to be spent annually on non-educational stuff. Maybe the public should have a say.”

Staci Rapko Bruckner replied, “I think this has all to do with education; this is a school committee.”

Mary Ann Roll commented that it would be good to track video views to see how many people are taking advantage of the service. There will be a link to the video through the website, and the School Committee will be able to determine the number of clicks.

Roll said of the cost, “Over time this adds up, so I just think it would be good to be able to track and report on it.”

Lori Miller said the videotaping will be up and running as soon as possible, and the Lincoln School Department will be alerting the public through listservs.

The Lincoln Town Council shows meeting videos through “intelligent meeting management” company IQM2. As the Lincoln School Committee will be doing, the Cumberland Town Council has been using ClerkBase.

The Cumberland School Committee shows its videos on YouTube, and two meetings last month each garnered more than 300 views.