Schools get $100,000 for TV programming
By josh davidson
Staff Writer

MIDDLETOWN — The Board of Education received $100,000 from the Township Committee to enhance its television studios, but programming might not include board meetings.

The dollar amount was agreed upon by the board and committee on June 16.

The money is from a $200,000 grant given to the township during a 1996 cable franchise renewal agreement between the committee and Comcast Cablevision, according to a township committee press release.

"It was $100,000 that was promised to us through negotiations where the town extended Comcast’s contract over the next few years," said school board member N. Britt Raynor.

The money will be used toward studios at High School North and South, he said.

"I’m much happier, and there’s always been a spirit of cooperation between town hall and the school board, although it sometimes gets strained," Raynor said. "It always comes back to helping the students."

The channel has been used minimally by the schools, he noted.

Raynor said that when the school year starts, the board will consider additional opportunities for programming, including broadcasting board meetings.

"I hope in the near future we can accommodate that," he said.

Broadcasting meetings can show residents that the board is a $100 million operation and can show them what is going on in the district, he added.

"I think it will start an open dialogue with the community and it will be the first steps in educating the community into what the school board is about," he said.

Parents can see the cast of characters on the school board, Raynor noted.

However, the committee is against broadcasting any type of board meetings.

The township government wants to keep TV cameras out of meetings, because it will cause the channel to be politicized, Township Administrator Robert Czech said.

"One of the concerns we had with the station is we don’t want to do anything to distract from it being an educa­tional and governing resource to the town," he said. "We don’t want it to be politicized."

When meetings are broadcast, peo­ple tend to use the opportunity to make political statements, Czech said.

"It creates the potential for a meet­ing to take on connotations other than a regular meeting," he said. "We don’t want the station to be confrontational. We want it to be constructive as a re­source."

Airing meetings would also cause scheduling trouble, according to Czech. Programs need to be run more than once so that all community members have the opportunity to see them, and board meetings would also have to be re­played, which would disturb scheduling, he said.

"We want to see it as a positive tool, a positive resource," he said. "There is a lot of room for the schools to do things with it.

"We have two high schools, 12 ele­mentary schools and a ton of community organizations," he said. "As we evolve, there are going to be plenty of things to put on the station."

Helping students put ideas on the air is another focus, Czech said.

Members of the township committee and school board have met to discuss how to best utilize the television sta­tion, he said.

District television programs, includ­ing athletic events and a presentation on the school budget, have already run on the channel, Czech said.

"It’s pretty much open to them as far as what they put on the station," he added.

Anything that may cause a defama­tion lawsuit would not be allowed, ac­cording to Czech.

The board wants to use some of the money to buy equipment for off-site tap­ing such as sporting events, and the money will give students a chance to learn more about television program­ming, he said.

The channel has quickly developed into a quality source of community news and event programming, said Mayor Rosemarie D. Peters.

The township’s municipal access channel is channel 20.