Community Corner

School Board No Longer Taping Meetings

The board's decision makes it the only elected government body in the county not recording meetings.

The Douglas County Board of Education has decided to stop recording its meetings.

Superintendent Dr. Gordon Pritz said the outdated cassette recording machine the board was using stopped working recently. Although the tapes were available to the public, few people asked for them, officials told the Douglas County Sentinel.

Under the state’s Open Meetings law, the school board does not have to record meetings, but the public has the right to make recordings, said Attorney David Hudson, general counsel for the Georgia Press Association.

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After the recorder broke, the board asked Pritz to look into the cost of doing something similar to what the Douglas County and Douglasville does by recording commissioner and council meetings and then airing them on local access cable channels and posting them to the internet.

The cost was prohibitive, according to what officials told the Sentinel.

The board's decision makes it the only elected government body in the county not recording meetings by either audio or video.

County Spokesman Wes Tallon said the board of education has been told they could meet at the courthouse where the commissioners meet and use the audio equipment for a fee. But he said the school system ultimately decided to stay where they meet now.

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