Our View: School board should put all sessions back on TV

Our View: School board should put all sessions back on TV
Times Editorial Board • April 28, 2010

Less convenience does not equate to no transparency, but it also does not increase the sunshine.



That is our assessment of the Sunday Times news report "Some St. Cloud school board decisions made off-camera," which examined how in the past three years the school board has stepped away from a 2004 pledge to make sure its discussions and actions on high-profile measures were conducted during televised board meetings.
We see this news report as providing a reminder to district leaders — elected and professional — that they need to recommit the district to providing more transparency, even if it's largely for the sake of convenience.
Ideally, this should be in the form of live broadcasts — either on cable television or via the Web — of all board meetings and work sessions. At the least, though, such sessions could be recorded and made available promptly on the district website.
In regard to the specific pledge, it's important to note three factors in defense of the district.
First, only three of today's seven school board members held seats in 2004, and the district had a different superintendent. Second, the pledge was mostly rooted in budget cuts; it cut in half the number of televised board meetings. Third and most important, the district has done nothing illegal. All board meetings remain open to the public; you just can't watch all of them from the comfort of your home.
Of course, it's also worth pointing out that part of the 2004 pledge was to have meetings at various schools and thus build community. Since January, though, the board has held nontelevised meetings at the district administration offices in Apollo High School. Why the switch?
Similarly, in 2004 the move purported to save the district $3,500 annually. Well, even a cursory glance at the district's website and its cable television programming the past five years shows both have grown — some would say robustly. Where did those resources come from? And why can't $3,500 of those be applied to again televise all board meetings?
Honestly, when it comes to transparency, televising all school board sessions is far from the district's biggest immediate priority. (That would be releasing documentation showing how it handled several discrimination complaints from Somali and/or Muslim students the past two years, as we requested 14 days ago.)
But there is no denying that televising all board sessions would be a good strategic move — not just for residents' convenience or in response to this new report, but for building long-term trust by letting the sun shine in.