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Board places broadcasting policy on first read, agrees to post meeting videos within 24 hours with narrow editing to protect student/employee confidentiality

Southmoreland School Board · October 22, 2025
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Summary

The board placed a new broadcasting policy on first read Oct. 21 to stop live streaming and post meeting videos within 24 hours with limited editing to remove unauthorized disclosures of student and staff confidential information.

The Southmoreland School Board placed a broadcasting policy on first read Oct. 21 that would stop live streaming and instead post recorded meeting video within 24 hours, with narrowly defined editing permitted to remove unauthorized disclosures of student or employee confidential information.

At the Personnel, Policy and Academics committee meeting and during board discussion, members referenced the need to protect FERPA-protected student information and personnel privacy. A committee member summarized the recommendation: the district would not live-stream meetings but would post recordings within 24 hours so segments that might jeopardize student or staff confidentiality could be edited out prior to public posting. "We are going to not live stream, but that we would post the video of the meetings within 24 hours," the committee representative said.

Board members questioned who would make redaction/edit decisions and whether the solicitor would be involved, noting that solicitor involvement may incur costs. A public commenter recommended preserving unedited footage permanently as a public record and suggested a public comment period after the policy is disclosed and before votes occur to give the public an opportunity to respond to the proposed language.

The policy was placed on first read (posted for 30 days) and will return for further consideration; the board discussed retaining a limited unedited archive for accountability while allowing limited edits to protect legally protected information.

No final policy was adopted at the Oct. 21 meeting; the first read means the district will post the proposed policy for 30 days before a subsequent vote.