Council, board meetings headed to living rooms Boro will follow board's lead in buying digital equipment BY MICHAEL ACKER Staff Writer SAYREVILLE- Residents will soon be able to watch Board of Education and Borough Council meetings from the comfort of their homes, thanks to new technology. School Business Administrator Emidio D'Andrea said the board has been taping its meetings for several years now, but nowwill do so in digitalmedia format instead of analog. The school district ordered the digital media equipment for $6,000 in November, and it arrived in time for the board's meeting two weeks ago, according to Pat Lembo, board vice president. "The equipment we purchased is not only for filming Board of Education meetings," Lembo said. "It's going to be extensively used by students." The school district's director of technology, Sandi Paul, is working with the cable company to upload the recorded meetings to the cable systemequipment, Lembo said. In the meantime, the district will stream the video on the district's Web site at www.sayrevillek12.net. "It's evenmore convenient [on theWeb], because now people can click onto our Web site and view it at their leisure," Lembo said. The Jan. 15 meeting was the first that Paul recorded digitally, and Lembo said this meeting will soon be on the district's Web site. "She operated it and everything was fine," Lembo said. The Borough Council will also be recording its meetings in digital format for airing on the local cable channel. Borough Business Administrator Jeffry Bertrand said last week that the borough would pursue the purchase of digital recording equipment, much like the school board obtained, and that a staff person will record the council meetings without incurring overtime. Bertrand said the borough is going to see how the Sony equipment the board purchased works for the school district. However, the borough has no plans to post recorded meetings on the Web, since the borough's home page may not have the capacity for that. Borough Councilwoman Kathy Makowski said officials hope to have the program under way in two months. "It is really a benefit to residents who can't attend the meetings,"Makowski said. "Many people are working various hours. It's just more convenient, I think, for the general public to be able to view. "I also think this a wonderful opportunity for the people involved with the program at the high school to come and use equipment and get some real experience in this type of communications through the media," she added. The funds that the Board of Education used to buy the digital recording equipment came out of the technology department's budget, according to Lembo. "Sandi Paul had the funds available in technology," Lembo said. "It's long overdue. I have been looking forward to this for a long time, and I am hopeful that we will have the issues with the cable companies resolved shortly. I welcome the opportunity for more people to see the meetings. The more information they have, the better."