Brecksville-Broadview Heights Schools may add more live-streamed meetings

BRECKSVILLE, Ohio — The Brecksville-Broadview Heights Board of Education is considering live-streaming the meetings of its three standing committees.

The board discussed that possibility during its Feb. 23 meeting. Videos of past committee meetings would also be available on the school district’s YouTube channel.

The district already live-streams, records and posts videos of full board meetings.

“Personally, I think it makes sense to live-stream and record (the committee meetings),” board President Mark Dosen said at the meeting. “It’s the public’s business.”

The school board’s three committees are the Financial Liaison-Audit Committee, which participates in the State of Ohio’s annual audit of the district and other finance-related matters; the Permanent Improvement Committee, which reviews the district’s ongoing need for building improvements; and the Board Policy Committee, which discusses proposed new and modified policies.

Dosen said the Brecksville-Broadview Heights school board has been ahead of the game, compared to other districts, when it comes to live-streaming and recording meetings. Recording and posting meeting videos started here in early 2019. Live-streaming began in early 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

District Treasurer Craig Yaniglos said it costs nothing to live-stream, record and post meeting videos. However, it would cost $3,100 extra annually to create a separate space on the district website for committee meeting information.

The district currently pays $2,700 a year to provide information, including meeting agendas and documents, about full board meetings through the BoardDocs system on the district website.

Board member Kathleen Mack cautioned that some who participate in board committee meetings, which are often sparsely attended, might not feel comfortable sharing certain information if they know the meetings are live-streamed.

For example, Mack said, Pat Corbett — executive director of the North East Ohio Learning Associates, which helps school boards establish policies — sometimes talks about policies in other districts when he appears before the Brecksville-Broadview Heights school board policy committee.

“I love the idea of live-streaming all committees,” Mack told cleveland.com in an email. “However, there are a lot of people who attend committees that are not elected officials, so I want to ensure that they have a heads-up before we dive in completely.”

Dosen noted that board committee meetings are already open to the public.

“Obviously, live-streaming and recording brings a bigger audience, but you could have people from the public show up in person at those meetings,” Dosen said.

Nevertheless, Dosen put the matter on hold, asking the administration to find out what the Ohio School Boards Association is advising about live-streaming and recording meetings.

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