School Boards going digital

Part of my job as the education reporter is to attend school district board meetings. The trustees on these boards govern how school district funds are spent, hire and fire employees and make sure students are getting the best education available to them.

But these trustees are also human.

Nothing has proved this fact more lately than the implementation of Electronic School Board, a system that allows school board meetings to be conducted entirely on laptops in front of each of the board members.

Instead of having 100-plus-page agendas in front of them, board members just click on documents on their laptops. They also vote on their computers, and the results are shown on a screen pointed toward the audience.

This Electronic School Board program has been popping up at several school board meetings around Merced County lately. The Dos Palos-Oro Loma Unified School District is using it, as is the Merced Union High School District.

Of course, just because you are a board member doesn’t mean you are computer-savvy. Whether it is a slow Internet connection or a confused or distracted trustee, the program has had made for some interesting meetings these past few months.

For example, at a recent Merced Union High School District board meeting, trustees were supposed to be listening to a superintendent give a report. One trustee, however, seemed to be staring at his laptop screen.

All of a sudden, his computer started to make a roaring sound. At first, several of us looked around, unaware of where the sound was coming from. After a few more roars, Trustee Mike Carpenter confessed it was his computer making that sound. He told those at the meeting he had been on the district’s Independence High School Web site, which had their mascot - a Lion - roaring in the background.

Carpenter looked embarrassed, but got over it quickly. At least he was staying on topic.