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Board votes to seek permanent retention of meeting recordings as MP3s pending state approval
Summary
Groveport Madison board approved a change to its records-retention schedule to request permanent retention of meeting audio recordings in MP3 format, subject to approval by the Ohio Historical Society; the board also clarified storage and administrative implications.
Groveport — The Groveport Madison Local Schools Board on March 11 voted to request that the state historical agency approve making the district’s meeting audio part of the permanent records schedule, and the board limited the request to MP3 audio files to reduce storage burdens.
Board member Mrs. Walsh moved to change the records-retention schedule (RC 2, Schedule 102) to make board meeting recordings permanent. During discussion the treasurer and district staff said the district would need to apply to the Ohio Historical Society (state records authority) for an exception — the change cannot be carried out solely at the local level. Staff said the district currently retains video and audio copies in Google Cloud and posts recordings to YouTube; indefinite retention would increase cloud-storage needs unless the board agreed to audio-only files.
Mister Kirschner proposed an amendment to narrow the request to MP3 audio files and to make the request conditional on Ohio Historical Society approval. The board adopted the amendment and then passed the underlying motion. Board members and staff said converting to audio-only would be administratively straightforward and would keep storage needs small compared with higher-resolution video. The treasurer and technical staff noted that if the district upgrades to higher-resolution video in the future, storage requirements would increase.
Vote and implementation: The amendment to retain MP3 audio files permanently passed unanimously, and the board then voted to proceed with the retention-schedule change. The treasurer was authorized to submit the RC 2 form to the state for review; the district will then hold a records commission meeting to finalize local approval if the state concurs.
Context: Speakers noted prior legal advice and internal practice: recordings are used as a reference when minutes lack detail but the retention schedule currently lists such audio/video as temporary (two years). The board did not change the district’s public YouTube postings; the action concerns the district’s internal archival retention policy and the formal legal records schedule.
