Stay Tuned: Pine-Richland School Board Meetings to Return to Airwaves

Interested viewers will once again be able to catch up with Pine-Richland School Board meetings from the comfort of their own living rooms.

At Monday’s meeting, district officials voted 6-3 in favor of recording and broadcasting the Pine-Richland School Board’s planning and regular meetings.

Starting with the May 6 planning session, Armstrong Cable Subscribers may view the meetings on digital cable channel 211 and regular cable channel 50 while Consolidated subscribers will be able to view the sessions on channel 404.

Rachel Hathhorn, Pine-Richland’s director of communications, said the district also hopes to post the meetings online on the school’s PR-TV website.

“The plans are to offer it on demand on PR-TV,” she said.

Citing budgetary concerns, Dennis Sundo, Marc Casciani and Therese Dawson voted against recording and broadcasting the meetings.

According to district officials, televising the meetings would cost about $4,300 annually. Steve Karpinski, technician and stage manager for PR-TV, would record the meetings for the district.

Sundo noted directors voted to do away with televising the meetings two years ago as a cost-saving move for the district.

“I don’t think our budget issues have changed,” he said. “I agreed with the decision to get rid of this a few years back.”

Dawson noted there are two seats on the school board that no one has filed with the Allegheny County Election Bureau to fill in the upcoming primary election.

One of those seats belongs to school board director Stephen Hawbaker, who said he would not run for the board when his term ends in 2013. 

“I’m not willing to video tape that lack of interest,” Dawson said. “It just doesn’t interest me to spend money that way.”

Hawbaker, who has been on the board since 2001, disagreed. He said he has had people tell him they missed the broadcasts since they stopped running in 2011.

“I look at getting these board meetings out on PR-TV as an opportunity to inform our voting public,” he said.

Director Dr. Jeffrey Banyas shared Dawson view that there is a lack of interest in the board’s procedures, but said that’s all the more reason to televise the meetings.

“People don’t have to stay up and watch it. DVRs allow people to watch it at their leisure and fast-forward to what they think is important,” he said. “I think it’s worth the money to inform our public.”

What do you think? Are you pleased the district will once again broadcast school board meetings? Tell us in the comment section below.

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