It’s a question on the minds of Boise parents and employees: What went wrong with Monday night’s virtual school board meeting?
The district abruptly canceled Monday night’s meeting, where trustees were expected to decide how to launch the 2020-21 school year. Technical problems left parents and employees (and, yes, reporters) locked out of the meeting.
In an email Tuesday morning, district spokesman Dan Hollar explained what happened — and what’s in place for Tuesday night’s rescheduled board meeting. Here’s his walkthrough:
- The district had planned to use a live stream that would have had room for 100,000 participants. But the stream wasn’t available to external users — only to district users.
- When the link to this original live stream didn’t work, the district switched to a different link with a capacity of 250 viewers. “We tried to make some adjustments, (but) none of them met our expectations for public involvement,” Hollar wrote.
- Nearly an hour after the meeting’s scheduled 5:30 p.m. start time, trustees voted to postpone to Tuesday, “in the spirit of public participation and openness,” Hollar wrote.
The district will post links Tuesday afternoon for anyone wishing to watch the meeting, testify or comment, and the district is working on backup plans as needed, Hollar said.
Check back at Idaho Education News for coverage of Tuesday night’s meeting.
