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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.
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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). |
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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). |
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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:
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1. |
A computer with speakers (so
that you can hear the budget presentation), |
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2. |
High speed internet access
such as Road Runner or DSL, and |
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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:
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