Pennsbury School Board Votes To Change Audio Recording Policy

Audio and video recording was a point of contention during Pennsbury School District's board meeting on Tuesday night.

The issue was Board Policy 903.3: The Use and Control of School Board Meeting Recordings. The policy states:

“The audio and video recordings of any public meetings of the School  Board, or portions of any such meetings, produced by the School District as described in Pennsbury School Board Policy 903.2R1 titled Recording of School Board Meetings, are the exclusive property of the School District to be used at the Board’s discretion.”

The issue with the policy is, when recording are edited, it would be decided by the entire board. The new policy under the same name and new index number 903.3R1 says that it would be under the School Board President's discretion.

The matter came up when Simon Campbell was verbally attacked by a member of the public during the last meeting. There was a long debate, between Campbell and Superintendent Dr. Paul Long, on whether or not this was the right decision.

Following the verbal assault on Campbell during the last meeting, there was a delay on posting the audio recording so the board could make sure that the attack was not defamatory. Plus, some of the debate included whether or not these recordings are property of the school district or the public.

Campbell jumped in and said, “Wait a second Paul, I called Mike (Kristofco) directly and signed a waiver just to calm Mike down and you, saying I wouldn’t sue the school district that I’m the governing board director on, which is rather unusual, just because I wanted it out there.”

After Campbell’s remarks, there was more debate between Long, Campbell and a member of the public on whether or not having one person deciding if the audio recording can be edited is censorship, they continued with the meeting.

Once the motion came up whether to approve the new policy, it passed by a vote of 8-1. Campbell was the sole vote against it.