Bow residents are calling for all school district meetings to be live-streamed and recorded, putting forward a petition warrant article that will be considered at the town meeting in March.

During last week’s school district meeting, Susan Marcotte Jenkins stressed the importance of making meetings accessible to the community.

“The public has an interest in how you conduct our business, and it’s really difficult for a lot of people to come at six o’clock on a Thursday night,” Jenkins said. “If recordings were available online, it would be far more convenient and would encourage citizen involvement.”

While the Bow School District has live-streamed and recorded meetings in the past, it has only done so upon request from a resident or school board member.

Many hope the process can become a routine part of how the district operates with the warrant article.

Duane Ford, the district’s business administrator, explained that the high school auditorium, where most school board meetings take place, is already equipped for live streaming and recording.

A tech staff member currently runs the equipment during meetings for $150 to $200 per session.

However, the warrant article does not address funding for these operational costs. Ford said the preferred approach would be to invest in automated equipment that could run the process independently.

“The reason we want to do that and get that set up is that if our tech person is sick or unavailable or has something else scheduled, we wouldn’t be able to live-stream and record it,” he said about the scenario the town currently faces.

But, upgrading to automated equipment would require a one-time investment of $6,000 to $8,000.

Judson Malone, a father of four in the district, understands that attending Thursday evening meetings isn’t always possible for everyone. While he can go to the meetings when his wife takes the kids to sporting events, he prefers people to engage in person rather than online. He worries that recording meetings might discourage direct participation.

“I feel like that is a way to disincentive engagement with the group,” said Malone. “If you want to engage with the board, you should be able to access the meetings conveniently. I’ve personally enjoyed attending these meetings.”

Sruthi Gopalakrishnan can be reached at sgopalakrishnan@cmonitor.com