SAD 58 conducts first board meeting live on video
Board members were seen from the Salem meeting on a theater-type screen.
SALEM – SAD 58 directors had five people watching them via a live video feed at Tuesday night’s board meeting.
The district held its first board meeting with video-conferencing equipment. The feed connected the meeting at the Mount Abram High School in Salem to board members and guests from the Stratton-Eustis area who linked up through cameras and microphones at the Stratton Elementary School.
Stratton board members were seen from the Salem meeting by the audience on a theater-type screen at the front of the room and by board members facing the audience through a television in the back of the room.
The agenda was relatively light so the district could test the new equipment. The video equipment cost $8,500 and was paid for by a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Not only does the technology mean that board members and community members in the Stratton area don’t have to travel more than 30 miles, it also can be used by teachers at the Mount Abram High School to conference with parents in Stratton or other teachers.
There is even a possibility for students to use the equipment to link up with others around the globe, for example at the Cincinnati Zoo or at NASA, explained high school math teacher Peter Manning.
Manning, sitting in Stratton, told those in Salem the sound is usable and for the most part “comes and goes in a very rhythmic pattern.”
The only problem was that paperwork handed out at the Salem meeting wasn’t immediately available to those in Stratton, however, it was faxed to them and those in Stratton could be seen getting the paperwork and looking it over just minutes later.
District Superintendent Quenten Clark said he wasn’t sure of the legality of the technology, but said the district was paving new ground.
The equipment was installed at the 11th hour, not arriving until last Thursday.
Despite the rush to get the system up and running, further set back by Monday’s snow day, Angel Allen, district technology coordinator, still had a smile on her face.
“It was worth it just to see it work,” she said.
sdepoy@sunjournal.com
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