Central High School Board member Mary Anderson (left) shows board member Michael Infusino how to access materials attached to agenda items at Tuesday's School Board meeting. The board used laptops for agenda materials instead of paper for the first time Tuesday night.
Attend a few government meetings and you can see quickly that supporting materials for the business transacted there can quickly produce a smal mountain of paper. And that mountain has to be multiplied by however many members of the board or staff are present.
The Central High School Board Tuesday tried to cut into that paper mountain by for the first time using laptop computers for meeting materials instead of paper.
At the beginning of Tuesday’s meeting, board President Mary Ellen Pearsall asked the audience for patience while the board got used to things.
Then, as she began the regular agenda, she picked up a piece of paper and started to read. Quickly realizing what she had just done, she quipped “I guess you’ll have to get used to me too” and referred to her electronic agenda for the rest of the meeting.
The computers being used by the board were equipment the district already owned, district administrator Scott Pierce said.
If the paperless format catches on with the board, eventually materials for agenda items being considered by the board may be projected so they are be visible by the audience, Pierce said.
“It’s important that people can see them,” Pierce said.
Pierce commended the board for giving the computerized meeting materials a try and said the effort will be evaluated on an ongoing basis.
“We really want to have your thoughts as time goes on,” Pierce said.
Central High School Board members used computers Tuesday for their meeting materials instead of paper. It was the first time the board had tried the paperless method.
