Letter: MHPSD live streams a step in the right direction, but more still needs to be done

By Letter to the Editor on December 15, 2021.

Dear editor,

As communicated to me by a board representative, Medicine Hat Public School Board is taking steps to increase transparency of its operations by live-streaming the public portions of its board meetings.

Live-streaming will be a major step forward, with MHPSD joining other boards such as Medicine Hat Catholic Board of Education and Lethbridge Public Division Board, which are already using this technology. MHPSD is to be commended for this action, but more is needed.

Unless Medicine Hat Public School Board changes its procedures with regard to holding most of its discussion in Committee of the Whole, hidden from the public, the use of live-streaming will result in minimal improvement of board communication. Board policy, for instance, is a matter of public domain, and published on the MHPSD webpage. Why then, is review of board policy carried out in-camera, and in some cases, without any notice to the public in board agendas prior to their approval?

Policy matters, and probably many other matters of public interest not requiring confidentiality, need to be discussed by the MHPSD board in public view, especially when public portions of meetings are live-streamed, not hidden behind closed doors as is currently done.

Michael Seitz

Medicine Hat

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