YouTube channel offers school board meetings online

After hearing discussion on making Sarasota County School Board meetings and workshops more accessible, Eric Robinson decided to come up with his own solution.

Robinson requested copies of the recordings of both the board meetings and televised portion of the workshops from the school and uploaded them all to YouTube, naming the channel Sarasota County School Board Online.

Robinson said he told the board his plans before, but will attend the board meeting tonight and notify the members of his progress so that they can discuss it.

Robinson wanted to make it clear to the board it wasn’t a political move—he was Jane Goodwin’s campaign treasurer in 2010 and Bridget Ziegler’s in November’s election. Ziegler pushed for more televising and easier access to meeting recordings during her campaign in 2014, which is why Robinson said he waited until after the election was over to take action.

“I waited… to avoid clouding the issue. It’s not partisan,” he said. “The school district is great, and it does wonderful things.”

He’s got the largest collection of school board meetings in the country, he said, laughing.

Within the next week or two Robinson said he would be caught up: now he has most of the first half of 2014's meetings on the channel. He’s waiting on some remaining recordings.

He doesn’t have the recordings for the untelevised sections of the board workshops, which occur in a different room and are only audio recorded. Robinson said he is working to figure out a way to put those on YouTube.

“I wanted to show (the board) a solution that won’t cost taxpayers any money,” he said. “It is technically possible.”

Robinson said he plans to continue the YouTube channel and is also working on putting up a website to host meeting videos, too.

Jane Goodwin, school board member for district 5, said she hasn’t reviewed the YouTube channel yet but is fine with Robinson’s actions.

“He’s a creative… a good resource,” she said.

The board is already looking into updates for its computer and Wi-Fi system, in addition to its online streaming capabilities, she said. The board is getting information together to allocate such funding needed for these updates in the next fiscal year budget.

Although meetings are broadcasted on television, the district currently doesn't upload any board meetings to YouTube, said Scott Ferguson, communications specialist for the school district. The district does have a YouTube channel where it uploads other videos.

IF YOU GO

What: Sarasota County School Board meeting
When: 6:30 p.m., Tuesday, Jan. 6.
Where: 1980 Landings Blvd., Sarasota