In this file photo, the Morgan Hill School Board includes, from left, Don Moody, Bart Fisher, Julia Hover-Smoot, Shelle Thomas, Michael Hickey, Kathy Sullivan and Peter Mandel.
It's been almost 10 years - and it's not the same school board, the same crew or even the same technology. Thanks to Ann Sobrato High School's multimedia teacher Gary Harmon, the Morgan Hill Unified School Board meetings will be on television once again.
"There's been a lot of interest, 'when are we going to see the broadcast of the meetings?' for a while," Harmon said.
In the mid-1990s the meetings were filmed voluntarily by two women and shown on Morgan Hill Access Television. Last week, during a stop at MHAT, volunteers said that they would receive the video tape from the women and air it without any editing. But without volunteers to film, there's no tape and no way for the public to watch the meetings, unless they attend.
But now, students in Harmon's advanced multimedia class will get some real-world experience at the meetings and provide a service to interested Morgan Hill residents. Rotating groups of four students will man two video cameras and use a switcher to cut from one camera to the other. Harmon said they're aiming for the first meeting in April as the initial public broadcast, with the actual air date and times to follow. Students will direct a practice run with the cameras at tonight's meeting at 6 p.m. in the regular meeting place in MHUSD's building at 15600 Concord Circle.
The project comes on the heels of getting Sobrato's Education TV channel 20 up and running, Harmon said.
"We have the venue for the meetings. Now, we have our own station to run and play this," he said. Filming the meetings was just all part of the plan - "the natural progression."
The Tuesday evening meetings are scheduled for the second and fourth Tuesday of every month from 6 to about 9 p.m. The calendar of meeting times can be found at www.mhu.k12.ca.us under "board of education."
The students will attend every meeting once they launch, and they will tape the meetings in their entirety. Harmon said eventually the meetings will go live on the air.
Superintendent Dr. Wes Smith has said he supports airing the meetings on TV, as long as it doesn't cost the district any money.
School board trustee Shelle Thomas welcomed the revival of televised meetings.
"It allows the public to be involved and see what we do," Thomas said, "And it builds accountability. It's exciting."
Thomas was doubly as excited about the students' role in the process, "the engagement they're going to have, to have to stay for the whole (meeting) time," adding that students will get to be a part of reaching out to the community.
Morgan Hill mother of five Cori Gonzales has three children in the school district and she said she's thought about attending the meetings, but with five children, time isn't exactly on her side.
"Now that they're on TV, I have a much better chance to catch them," she said while shopping Monday afternoon with two young children at Safeway on Tennant Road.
Gilroy's school parents have had access to meetings since about 2002, when the town's public access TV station Community Media Access Partnership launched in 2002, according to Cristina Lee, CMAP's programming assistant.
Lee said that the Gilroy school district has a private contractor who records the meetings and then provides CMAP with the tapes which are aired without any editing - called "live to tape."
The weekly meeting is shown on channel 17 in Gilroy about four times a week at varying time slots so viewers have several chances to catch the program, Lee said.
"Because of the budget cuts, there's been more of an interest than normal, so we do try to get the information out there," she said.
Morgan Hill residents can look forward to the same access this spring on channel 20. The Times will print the first air date and times as they become available.
Lindsay Bryant Lindsay Bryant is a reporter for South Valley Newspapers.
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