City Council members gave Morgan Hill Unified School District
educators a new opportunity Wednesday night when they voted
unanimously to authorize the district to use one of two available
cable access channels provided by Charter Communications.
Morgan Hill – City Council members gave Morgan Hill Unified School District educators a new opportunity Wednesday night when they voted unanimously to authorize the district to use one of two available cable access channels provided by Charter Communications.
School Board President Peter Mandel said the educational channel will provide a variety of possibilities for the district.
“Opening up this channel is a benefit to the community, now people will be able to see board meeting, and more importantly, a benefit to our schools in that it will expand the kind of instructional opportunities we are able to offer kids,” he said.
The city’s agreement with the cable company provides four public access channels to be used for educational or governmental purposes, and while two channels have been in use for many years, the remaining two have not been utilized.
Three organizations – MHUSD, Gavilan College and Media Access Coalition of Central California – were interested in acquiring license to use the two channels, so the city requested proposals and presentations from the three.
City staff evaluated the presentations, the audiences of the organizations and the proposed programming and recommended that City Council grant use of the two channels to MHUSD and Gavilan College.
Council members voted Wednesday to approve the staff recommendation.
Morgan Hill Mayor Steve Tate said Thursday that the council’s action will benefit the community.
“This can be a great program for the schools, for everybody,” he said. “The schools have great studios, really state of the art. The thing now is just to wait for Charter to get everything hooked up, which we hear could be 30 to 60 days, but we are encouraging them to move as quickly as possible.”
The school district has been working on developing different ways to incorporate the new channel into the curriculum. A studio at Sobrato High School and facilities at Live Oak High School can be used to produce material for the channel.
One of the big focuses of the school community is getting the bi-monthly school board meetings televised. Previously two district teachers volunteered their time to videotape every meeting, and the tape was played on Channel 19 on the Saturday night after the meeting.
The practice was discontinued after Superintendent Alan Nishino came on board in 2005.
Mandel said he is not sure exactly when the meetings will again be televised, but that district officials are considering plans for doing so.
