School districts across the state and the nation have been conducting board of education meetings in cyberspace for years, but with the COVID-19 pandemic making social distancing necessary, the Gwinnett County Board of Education will hold its first-ever work session and regular business meeting that way on Thursday.
But it won’t be livestreaming. The largest school district in Georia will be using the Microsoft Teams Live format. “Our district does not have the livestreaming capability currently and this is a good stop-gap measure during these unusual times when there are restrictions regarding public gatherings,” said spokeswoman Sloan Roach. “The technology in our board meeting rooms is slated for a retrofit this summer which would allow for streaming should our Board of Education vote to approve a move in that direction.”
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That is good news to Marlyn Tillman. A regular board meeting attendee, she’s a parent, community activist, and co-founder of Gwinnett Parent Coalition to Dismantle the School To Prison Pipleline also know as Gwinnett SToPP. But she said she’s disappointed that it’s just now happening.
“When you consider that Gwinnett has a budget of more than $2 billion, they shouldn’t be culling together a way to livestream a meeting,” she said. “I know for a fact that Brookwood High School and several others have the capability to do this. Why is it so hard for the board?”
The monthly work session will begin at 4:30 p.m., an executive (closed) session will be held after the work session, and the monthly business meeting will begin at 7 p.m.
There will not be a 6:15 p.m. public forum this month, according to Roach. The board’s normal procedure of having people sign up to address the board via fax or email by noon on the Monday before the meeting remained in place this month. However, there were no requests.
Normally, people who miss the Monday deadline can sign up right before the public forum and still address the board. Since the meeting won’t take place in person, there’s no way to sign up.
“That goes back to transparency issues. There’s no reason why citizens should not be able to address the board,” Tillman said. “The biggest portion of my tax bill goes to Gwinnett schools. As a taxpayer, I should be able to have access even in the midst of a pandemic.”
Everton Blair, one of the newest board members, ran on a campaign of working to bring Gwinnett into the 21st century. He said he sees the virtual meetings as a first step.
“I’m glad the decision was made to do this. Obviously, we should have been doing this a lot sooner.”
Smaller school districts have been conducting meetings online for years. Atlanta Public Schools is a little more than half the size of Gwinnett and it also airs public comments during meetings. With the pandemic, just about every school system in metro Atlanta has begun conducting business meetings virtually.
Blair said board members will be briefed about specifics Tuesday.
“I’m willing to do whatever it takes to make this work,” he said. “I know I’m the youngest board member and a lot of people in the community feel comfortable talking to me about various issues. Maybe this will make more people want to provide input to everyone. As the largest school district, we should be leading in areas like this, not following far behind.”
Gwinnett County Public Schools virtual board of education meeting
The public will be able to view both the 4:30 p.m. work session and the 7 p.m. business meeting at gcpsk12.org/virtualboardmeeting. There is a separate link for each meeting. The meeting links will not be live until 15 minutes before the meeting start time. The meetings also will be broadcast on GCPS-TV. Check your cable provider for the channel number.
Access the meeting agendas at www.gwinnett.k12.ga.us in the Board of Education section.
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