Throughout the pandemic the Warwick School Committee along with other public bodies across the state live streamed its meetings, through Zoom, Youtube and on other platforms. 

While public bodies are no longer allowed to only conduct their meetings online, guidance from the Attorney General’s Office stated that they would still be able to have streaming of meetings to allow members of the community to view meetings from home. 

During the Oct. 12 meeting School Committee member David Testa asked his colleagues to formally commit to live streaming all of their meetings. 

“I think we all agree that the expectation of the public coming out of the pandemic is to live stream meetings. I think it makes meetings much more transparent. The community can see at their convenience us conduct our business and I’d like this body to commit to live streaming all our public meetings. I think it’s necessary.”

Jeff Taylor, director of technology for the school district said that they have already purchased the basic equipment needed for a cost of about $3,000. 

Although they now have the equipment the issue that Taylor pointed out was making sure they have someone at all of their meetings running the camera. 

Taylor said that they hired Brian Cousineau as their AV technician. 

While he will be the person running the camera for the meeting Taylor said that they need to have a backup person for nights he can’t make it.  For example he knows that Cousineau can’t make the November meeting.

Testa said he was okay with the Administration doing what is necessary to find a backup person as long as they have someone to stream the meetings. 

“We need to make sure that every meeting has someone here,” Testa said. 

Taylor noted that in the past they’ve tried to recruit staff members to staff the meetings for additional pay but have had trouble finding someone. 

School Committee Chairwoman Judy Cobden said that she thinks it would be best to have someone in house to be the backup person and asked Taylor to repost it in hopes of finding someone.

“I think that’s always a good idea to post it in case even if people have had a change of heart since the last time we posted it,” Taylor  said. 

Committee member Nathan Cornell said he was happy with the decision to pursue live streaming on a permanent basis.

“I’m glad that we’re going to be live streaming our meetings. I know the City Council has been doing it for a while so I think it’s about time that we do as well so I’m glad that this is happening,” he said. 

The School Committee unanimously approved live streaming of all of its meetings.