Trustees balk at network notion

Deirdre Newman

The Newport-Mesa Unified school board would like to boost its

presence in the city with live broadcasts of meetings, but isn’t sure

if networking all the schools is necessary.

On Tuesday, the board embraced trustee Tom Egan’s idea to

broadcast its meetings live in Newport Beach.

The decision encouraged Steve Glyer, director of educational

technology, to continue working with city officials to gain a

dedicated access channel. Newport Beach residents now wait 11 days to

see the latest school board meeting.

The board was not as quick to endorse Egan’s suggestion that all

the schools be networked so students at one school could watch

students from another school on their classroom TV.

Trustees said they needed more time to explore the need and

usefulness of making such a large investment, suggesting a study

session in the future.

“The board needs to wrestle with, ‘Where are we going?’ because of

all the different alternatives,” board President Martha Fluor said.

Egan said he was glad his fellow board members were at least

considering his suggestion.

“Our kids are missing out on some really effective ways of

learning,” Egan said.

“To have classrooms full of PCs and video cameras without a means

to broadcast class projects to other classrooms throughout the

district is about as Stone Age as writing an e-mail, then

hand-carrying it to all of the address list instead of using the

Internet,” he said.