The monthly meetings of the Moore County Board of Education will be as close as a computer when live video streaming begins on Monday.

Schools Superintendent Aaron Spence promoted the idea after school board members asked him to come up with a way to make the board’s activities more “transparent” and accessible to the public.

“Our school board welcomes the use of today’s technology to improve communication with the community and provide greater transparency for the work that we do,” Spence said “Greater involvement by the community makes for a stronger school system, and this is one way that our parents, business leaders, civic leaders and others who support our school system in a variety of ways can be more informed.”

School system spokesman Tim Lussier said most computers are now equipped to handle video streaming, which is a common practice for many organizations and businesses, as well as popular websites such as YouTube and Netflix.

“For best results, it is advisable that the computer has a current version of a Web browser,” he said. “More information about this can be found on our website.”

Lussier said that the process requires no expenditure of funds.

“What the board does is very important, and each month does things that has an impact from the classroom to the overall operation of the school district,” he said. “Very interesting things take place at these meetings, and the board is anxious for the public to see what they are doing.”

Board Chairwoman Kathy Farren agreed.

“One of the things we discussed when hiring a new superintendent was our desire for greater transparency in all we do and to be more available and open to the public,” she said. “Dr. Spence brought the idea of video streaming board meetings to us, and we thought it was a great idea and a positive step toward our goal.”

The board will also have a goal setting/training session beginning at 4 p.m. Monday, which will also be streamed. A break will occur between 6 and 7 p.m. while the board goes into closed session. The regular board meeting will begin at 7 p.m., at which time the video streaming will resume.

“Those interested in viewing the meting may go to our website at www. ncmcs.org and click on the live video streaming link near the bottom of the page,” Lussier said. “Viewers may also click www.ncmcs.org/boardmeetings to go to the meetings page directly.”

Lussier said that the meeting agendas, which are posted a few days prior to the monthly meetings, can be a good reference point for following the course of the monthly events.

“We have employee recognitions, presentations and many other interesting things at these meetings,” he said.

The monthly agendas can be found on the Board of Education page on the school system website.

Contact John Lentz at (910) 693-2479 or jlentz@ thepilot.com.