Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake
Central Schools
50 Cypress Drive
Glenville, NY 12302
Superintendent Jim Schultz
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Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake Central Schools
BH-BL 2010-11 Budget Forums

A Virtual Town Hall Meeting

Online participation in BH-BL Budget Forums

BH-BL Board of Education members invite all residents and staff members to participate in the process of developing next year's school budget. Three Budget Forums are scheduled to both educate and collect input from the public.

Forums will be held at 7:30 PM as follows:

      Tuesday, Feb. 2, in the High School Library

      Tuesday, March 2, in the High School Library

      Thursday, March 25, in the O'Rourke Middle School Cafetorium.

 

VIEW a recorded version of the March 25 Forum

If you missed the March 25 forum, you can now view a recorded version by clicking here.

You will need a copy of the March 16 Budget Worksheet in order to follow the forum discussion of the Superintendent's Recommended Budget.

For more details, see How the Online Meeting process works or view the recordings of previous forums, below, where you can see that up to 70 people at any one time took part online on March 2.

VIEWING TIPS:  The recorded version is two hours long. It should load and start automatically when you click the above link. Please be sure that your computer speakers are turned on so that you can hear the audio portion.  Note the toolbar and pause button at the bottom of the screen. To fast-forward or return to a different spot in the recording, drag the black progress line in the Playing bar to the right or left.  Please note also that comments and questions submitted by online participants appear on screen in the "Chat (Q &A)" box. This is one of several boxes with a right-hand scroll tab that you can drag up or down to view all the contents.

NOTE: If you have dial-up (rather than high-speed) internet access, we're sorry, but you may not be able to view the recording properly. However, anyone is also welcome to view the slides used at the March 25 forum here (pdf format).

 

VIEW a recorded version of the March 2 Forum

If you missed the March 2 forum, you can now view a recorded version by clicking here.

You will need a copy of the March 1 Budget Worksheet in order to follow the forum discussion of the 65 possible budget cuts under discussion as of March 2.

VIEWING TIPS:  The recorded version is 90 minutes long. It should load and start automatically when you click the above link. Please be sure that your computer speakers are turned on so that you can hear the audio portion.  Note the toolbar and pause button at the bottom of the screen. To fast-forward or return to a different spot in the recording, drag the black progress line in the Playing bar to the right or left.  Please note also that comments and questions submitted by online participants appear on screen in the "Chat (Q &A)" box. This is one of several boxes with a right-hand scroll tab that you can drag up or down to view all the contents.

NOTE: If you have dial-up (rather than high-speed) internet access, we're sorry, but you may not be able to view the recording properly. However, anyone is also welcome to view the slides used at the March 2 forum here (pdf format).

 

VIEW a recorded version of the Feb. 2 Forum 

If you missed the Feb. 2 budget forum, you can now view a recording of the online version by clicking here..

VIEWING TIPS:  The recorded version is 90 minutes long. It should load and start automatically when you click the above link. Please be sure that your computer speakers are turned on so that you can hear the audio portion.  Note the toolbar and pause button at the bottom of the screen. To fast-forward or return to a different spot in the recording, drag the black progress line in the Playing bar to the right or left.  Please note also that comments and questions submitted by online participants appear on screen in the "Chat (Q &A)" box. This box contains a scroll tab that you can drag up or down to view all the comments.

NOTE: If you have dial-up (rather than high-speed) internet access, we're sorry, but you may not be able to view the recording properly. However, anyone is also welcome to view the slides used at the Feb. 2 forum here (pdf format).

 

How does the Online Meeting process work?

Anyone who is unable to come to the budget forums in person is welcome to participate via their computer using a process that is sometimes referred to as a "webinar."

The district is using online meeting software (Adobe Connect Pro) that allows people to see and hear what is said at the forum and to type in their questions and participate in the meeting from their computer.

No special software is required on the user's end. However, users do need to have:

  1. A computer with speakers (so that you can hear the budget presentation),
  2. High speed internet access such as Road Runner or DSL, and
  3. Adobe Flash player to view the video image of forum presenters. (Most computers come with this now. Anyone who is able to view video clips on YouTube or TV station websites should be OK.)


Online participants can see and hear the presenters speaking at the podium and can see the presentation Powerpoint slides. Online viewers can also type in comments and questions, which a moderator at the forum can see and respond to. The moderator will also make individual comments/questions visible to all online participants.

The software that the district is using for this automatically records all the comments and questions that online participants type in, so Board of Education members will receive a copy of your input this way, just as well as if you attended in person.

BH-BL is grateful to the Capital Region BOCES and the Northeast Regional Information Center (NERIC) for their assistance in this and for instruction in the Adobe Connect Pro software (formerly called Breeze) that makes it all possible.

 

See also:

content bullet Budget Development Overview
content bullet Press release about the March 25 forum
content bullet Press release about the March 2 forum
content bullet Press release on preliminary budget and the Feb. 2 forum
content bullet

2010-11 Budget Calendar

content bullet 2010-11 Budget Objectives and Context
 
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This page is maintained according to the BH-BL Web Guidelines by Christy Multer  (518) 399-9141, ext. 5017.  © 2005 Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake Central School District. All rights reserved. Produced in cooperation with the Capital Region BOCES Communications Service. The BH-BL Central Schools is not responsible for the facts or opinions contained on any linked websites.