Clovis Unified decided to make public meetings less transparent, which is unacceptable

Most of the changes forced on society by the COVID pandemic have been challenging, to say the least. But in one respect, something really good happened.

As the pandemic began, Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an order that allowed public agencies to carry their meetings live online so anyone could watch the sessions. It was a strong pro-democracy move.

But the orders permitting livestreaming expired on Friday. And in preparation for that, the Clovis Unified School District announced it would cease livestreaming in favor of the return to in-person school board meetings.

“This allows everyone to witness every action of the board and public comments delivered to the board while we continue, as we have done throughout the pandemic, to meet in-person and receive in-person comments from the public,” Clovis Unified Chief Communications officer Kelly Avants told The Bee’s Education Lab staff writer Isabel Sophia Dieppa in an email.

Not exactly everyone.

Dieppa interviewed Morgan Terry, who has a younger relative in the district. Terry has a disability and cannot attend board meetings in person without difficulty.

“Parents cannot easily get sitters, change schedules, or attend in person,” Terry said. “Additionally, the board has proven that they can livestream, so I guess I’m asking why not keep it going.”

Clovis Unified parent Stephanie Mangrum worries about attending in person while the Delta variant continues to infect people, especially those who remain unvaccinated.

James Renwick, another Clovis Unified parent, sees the end of livestreaming as a blow to the district being as forthcoming as possible.

“This is, and I can’t stress this adjective enough, another transparency issue with the CUSD Board,” Renwick told Dieppa.

By not livestreaming, the school board will also not receive comments by phone from those watching online. Instead, the process reverts to how it was before the pandemic: Public comments must be made in person during the meeting.

Clovis Unified can say it is simply returning to how meetings were conducted before, and that would be accurate.

Avants said the move does not save money, but district staff will be able to focus energies on the live meetings. Those sessions will be recorded and can then be viewed online within 48 hours of a meeting by going to https://www.youtube.com/user/clovisusd/feed.

But the beauty of the livestreaming phase was how it gave home-bound people a chance to at least watch their elected officials in action, something those viewers had not been able to do previously.

Any move that increases public transparency and participation is great. Any move to limit, scale back, or end such is not. The Clovis Unified board and administration should reconsider this decision and bring livestreaming back. If only a handful of viewers are regulars, it is still worth the effort.

Here is hoping the decision to scale back does not inspire other local governments to follow Clovis Unified’s lead. Every government agency should continue livestreaming as a basic practice in this wired age because it increases trust and confidence in democracy. And in today’s polarized politics, faith in representative government is sorely needed.

This story was originally published October 4, 2021 at 10:52 AM.