Riverhead School District

Riverhead school board meeting videos may soon be posted online

Riverhead School District Superintendent Nancy Carney, left, school board president Sue K and member Chris Dorr at Tuesday's meeting. (Credit: Jen Nuzzo)
Riverhead School District Superintendent Nancy Carney, left, school board president Sue K and member Chris Dorr at Tuesday’s meeting. (Credit: Jen Nuzzo)

Residents may soon be able to watch Riverhead school board meetings online.

During the Board of Education’s meeting Tuesday night, vice president Sue Koukounas suggested the district upload the videos to its website starting in September, since software is already in place to do so.

The videos would be posted in BoardDocs, the same software that organizes the school board’s meeting agendas and minutes.

“This way the videos are posted in a continuous and timely manner,” Ms. Koukounas said of her proposal, adding that residents could watch the videos at their convenience under the new system.

Ms. Koukounas said she got the idea after hearing complaints from residents involving the current method of airing school board meetings on Channel 22 (the town’s public access channel). Southampton Town also airs school board meetings on its own public access channel.

In particular, she said the school board’s Oct. 14 meeting was repeatedly aired between November and March and the town played the school board’s Jan. 13 meeting on March 27 in error. The Nov. 18 and Dec. 9 meetings were never broadcast, she said.

After Calverton resident Sal Mastropaolo expressed concern about senior citizens not having access to a computer, Ms. Koukounas said she liked to continue to have the town broadcast the videos in addition to the district posting them on its own website.

Superintendent Nancy Carney said after the meeting that she supports the proposal and her office will look into creating a plan for it.

Riverhead resident Laurie Downs has volunteered to videotape school board meetings since 2000. After she videotapes the meetings, school officials burn the videos onto DVDs and gives them to Ms. Downs to deliver to the town. The district also sends the recordings to Southampton Town.

Ms. Downs said after the meeting that she believes it’s a good idea to have the videos played on the district’s website and public access, since some families don’t have computers.

“That’s wonderful because more people can watch it,” she said.

None of the school board members in attendance at Tuesday’s meeting opposed the idea. School board president Greg Meyer and members Tom Carson and Lori Hulse were absent.

[email protected]