The Eagle Point School District 9 board voted July 30 to approve the districts 202526 public meeting schedule with revisions, a vote that included removing routine listening sessions from the regular schedule and directing staff to bring a policy revision to the August work session. The boards secretary called the roll and the motion passed with affirmative votes from board members present.

Discussion before the vote focused on public access and the districts legal obligations for meeting recordings. Board members and staff said current practice is to upload an audio recording (MP3) and a video recording; some meeting locations such as Shady Cove have acoustics that make the uploaded audio difficult to hear. To improve accessibility, directors discussed purchasing an OWL camera (a pan/tilt/zoom device commonly used for small-room hybrid meetings) and recording a Zoom meeting to produce a clearer posted video. One director offered to donate an OWL device for testing. IT staff will evaluate and test the device in a suitable room (the library was mentioned as a likely alternative to the gym at one site).

The board also discussed community engagement practices. Because turnout for scheduled listening sessions has been low, several board members recommended discontinuing standing listening sessions and instead holding listening sessions on an as-needed basis when a specific issue is expected to draw public comment. The board requested a formal revision to the district policy that currently references listening sessions; staff will bring that revision to the August work session.

Separately, the board confirmed continued use of an outside consultant, Karen, to assist with SIA (Student Investment Account) grant work at least through the start of the school year. Board members also discussed a state bill intended to centralize grant-reporting data with the Oregon Department of Education; staff said many districts already put data into centralized systems and that a centralized ODE process could reduce administrative burden by allowing ODE to gather required data directly from district systems rather than requiring multiple separate reports. Board members stressed this change would not alter grant funding amounts but could reduce reporting time.

Action taken: the board approved the 202526 public meeting schedule with the stated revisions. Staff will prepare the policy revision on listening sessions for the August work session, IT will test the OWL/Zoom recording approach and report back, and staff will continue to coordinate consultant support and monitor the proposed state data-centralization bill.