School board may videotape meetings
"There's no way we can go wrong being transparent." - trustee David Hodges
By BRENDA SOMMER bsommer@leader-news.com

El Campo ISD's board may soon videotape meetings and make them available online for all to see.

During the April 15 meeting, trustees discussed taping the meetings after board members Cecil Davis and Ralph Novosad broached the subject with Superintendent Mark Pool.

In February, those two trustees, along with fellow board members David Hodges and LaKeta Jo Dennis, found themselves in a disagreement over directions given to the school's architects for soliciting bids for the artificial turf/track construction now under way at Ricebird Stadium.

They believed they were to receive three sets of proposals: one for track repairs only, one for artificial turf only, and one combining both projects, but only one set of bids was solicited, for the combined projects.

The four trustees recalled asking last September for three sets of proposals, while Pool and other trustees thought the board decided the following month to combine projects to save money.

Davis, Novosad and Hodges said videotaping would make it easier to clarify such confusion should it occur in the future.

"That's the reason I asked for it," Davis said.

Trustees also said taping the meetings and making them available on the district's Web site (www.ecisd.org) would make meetings more accessible to the public.

"There's no way we can go wrong being transparent," Hodges said.

The item was up solely for discussion, but the board directed Pool to see if the district has the ability to tape meetings in-house, and what would be required to post the videos online.