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Officials eye paperless meetings
BRATTLEBORO, Nov 04, 2008 (Brattleboro Reformer - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
School officials in Brattleboro are seeking to go from notepad to the laptop in an effort to make their materials more accessible and reduce the amount of paper they use.
The Brattleboro Union High School #6 Board of Directors toyed with the idea of having their agendas, reports and minutes available electrically, saving stacks of paper.
"There is some efficiencies here if we do this," said Board Chairman David Dunn during the Monday night meeting. Special e-mail accounts for board members could be established to provide members with the materials they need on a computer screen instead of in a booklet, he said.
With warrant articles and budget reports filed electrically to each board member, school officials estimate a major reduction in paper usage would result. Additionally, having the policy manual available in a PDF format would allow for greater speed and access of the document, especially when policies need a slight modification.
The move would also save the district on postage costs because many of the documents are sent by mail to the different board members.
Michael Hebert, vice chairman of the board and chairman of the Vernon School Board, said his town has taken proactive steps to use less paper at their meetings. Vernon also has a similar e-mail system that Dunn mentioned.
"Thus far, it's working fairly well," said Hebert. He told the board he will continue to
oversee the idea and report within the next month on the effectiveness of filing reports electrically.
While the concept was popular with a majority of the board, other members expressed concerns that having more than 10 laptops set up at the meetings would create a barrier between each other and the public.
Board member Ruth Barton of Dummerston did not like the idea, saying she preferred to have an actual copy in front of her rather than an unreliable computer.
"Unless I have a fire, my paper will be there," she said.
After the schools upgraded several dozen laptop computers, roughly 30-40 were donated to the high school. Educators expect about seven of the older models to be distributed to board members without laptops, with the rest remaining in the school for student use.
Prior to the discussion on having documents filed electrically, the board heard from the planning and policy committee about a proposal that would have BUHS sports teams compete in a more cost-effective manner.
First discussed during a Sept. 8 meeting before being sent for review, the proposal would allow teams to play through invitations from the Vermont Principal's Association, which sponsors state tournaments for high school team and individual sports. The measure would also place a 30 percent winning percentage on the team in order to compete.
Currently, BUHS is one of only two Division I schools in Vermont that created a self-imposed winning percentage in order to compete in tournaments.
At the following BUHS board meeting Nov. 17, discussions will continue on the sports policy.
Chris Garofolo can be reached at cgarofolo@reformer.com or 802-254-2311 ext. 275.
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