Plans to livestream school board meetings abandoned

The South Whidbey school board has decided not to pursue livestreaming its meetings for the time being.

As part of her report, Superintendent Jo Moccia announced that an online survey yielded only a handful of responses.

“We’re not seeing livestreaming as something people would look for,” Moccia said. “They would watch a video if there were a video, but not necessarily live.”

Livestreaming is real-time online video that is recorded and broadcast simultaneously. The school board had previously decided against using Facebook’s streaming service because of the interactive feature on the social media platform.

“This is the board’s meeting in public, opposed to a public meeting where there is interaction,” she said.

Moccia added that the total cost to livestream would be around $6,000, and the sound system, which would have to be redone for the room, would carry a price tag of $2,000.

“Setting up a video camera sounds great, but if you’re going to video something and not be able to hear it, it’s only going to frustrate your constituents,” she said.