The Bristol Township School District has more than about 200,000 reasons to broadcast school board meetings now.
Credit: Jeff Bohen/LevittownNow
The Bristol Township Council on Thursday night voted to approve a resolution that would cut roughly $200,000 in permit fees owed by the school district to the township. The fees were racked up by the district when permits were applied for by the district for two under-construction new elementary schools. The deal applies for the permits on the soon-to-be-built Mary Devine Elementary School in Croydon, also.
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The council said the district would have to immediately beginning broadcasting their meetings live for residents to view. Rebroadcasts of the meetings would have to happen at least three times within 30 days of happening. The council offered the township board room for use. The only cost to the district would be the videographer.
To receive the money back, the district would have to stick to those terms and work to broadcast future meetings.
The township council previously offered a deal to cut 30 percent of building permit fees with the proviso the board air three school board meetings on government access television. The other stipulation attached to the offer was that the district remove a deed restriction on the former school on Coates Avenue, which is now home to a non-profit for Vietnam Veterans.
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School district solicitor David Truelove said removing the deed prevision on the Coastes Avenue school is not possible under the state school code. District officials previously asked township officials to remove that provision.
The deed restriction states the school property must be used for educational purposes. The facility is currently partially occupied by the Delaware Valley Vietnam Veterans.
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Randall Flager, township solicitor, said during the meeting that the district made no effort to renegotiate the initial offer. “If you negotiate with someone and you make an offer it’s normal for the other side to say ‘we accept that but we can’t do this, we’ll agree to everything but what we can’t agree to that,’ “ he said. “They didn’t do that. They just avoided the issue.”
Council member Troy Brennen called the new deal a “no-brainer” for the district. He added that it would let the public view the meetings and see where the district’s money is going.
As of Friday, there was no word from the distrtict on the offer. However, Superintendent Dr. Sam Lee said on Monday that broadcasting of the school board meetings will likely begin in October. Lee said students will be putting on the broadcast.
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Currently, the district does not provide public video or audio recordings of their bi-monthly school board meetings. Bristol Township is the only Levittown-area district not to have video or audio recordings of their meetings. The issue has been raised by residents consistently over the last year by parents and elected officials of the district.
District officials previously said they planned to bring audio recording of the school board meetings to the district website. Audio quality was blamed for that plan not working out.
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The board could discuss the offer at their Monday board meeting.
