Oxnard School Board Approves Funding for Televised Meetings

Trustees at the Oxnard elementary school district have agreed to spend up to $20,000 to televise their board meetings in an effort to provide more community access.

During a recent meeting, trustees voted 3 to 1 to begin live broadcasts of their biweekly meetings as early as July 26.

Trustee Dorothie Sterling, who opposed the project, said she does not believe that the public’s interest in watching the meetings justifies spending $20,000.

“I don’t think there will be enough people to watch it. We don’t have a great public outcry for it,” Sterling said. “I don’t feel it’s money wisely spent.”

But trustee Arthur Joe Lopez, who first suggested the project, said televising sessions is necessary because many parents cannot take evenings off to attend the meetings.

District officials also said they want to have the televised meetings translated into Spanish because 80% of the district’s 13,000 students are Latino, and 49% of those students speak English as a second language.

District Supt. Bernard Korenstein said he is trying to find out whether the meetings should be translated simultaneously with subtitles on the screen or broadcasted later in Spanish.

The district already has a television studio that it uses to televise special district events such as graduations and educational programs. The $20,000 will be used to upgrade the studio’s video equipment, Korenstein said.

Board meetings usually take place every second and fourth Wednesday of the month at 7 p.m. The meetings are expected to be televised on cable channel 22, officials said.