From now on, if you want to watch a meeting of the Brookfield-LaGrange Park School District 95 Board of Education you will need to attend the meeting in person. Last week the District 95 school board, following the wishes of Superintendent Mark Kuzniewski, decided to stop broadcasting its meetings via Zoom.

District 95 meetings have been broadcast live on Zoom since earlier this year. But Kuzniewski said it is a lot of work and not many people watched over the teleconferencing app. 

There have also been periodic problems with the quality of the broadcast, with Zoom viewers sometimes unable to hear what was being said at the meetings. With the COVID-19 pandemic seemingly easing and kids back in school full time, the school board agreed that now is the time to stop broadcasting the school board meetings.

“Zoom was not designed to broadcast meetings,” Kuzniewski said. “It was desperate choice.”

School board member Melissa Biskupic agreed.

“The way we’re doing it is not working,” Biskupic said.

Board member Jessica Filbey agreed that Zoom viewers had a tough time hearing what was said at the meeting.

“I really think it would be better if people showed up in person,” Filbey said.

The District 95 school board usually meets on the second Thursday of each month. Meetings usually start at 7 p.m. and are typically held in the multipurpose room at Brook Park School, 1214 Raymond Ave. in LaGrange Park.

Riverside Elementary School District 96 is the only area elementary school district to routinely televise its board meetings. District 96 meetings are broadcast live by Riverside TV and then archived on that agency’s website and posted on the District 96 website for later viewing. District 96 school board meetings have been broadcast since 2013. 

The videos of District 95 meetings were never posted on the district’s website for later viewing. Riverside-Brookfield High School District 208 school board meetings have been broadcast by the school’s television station since 2007, and they have been broadcast live since 2011. 

LaGrange-Brookfield School District 102, which includes the southwest portion of Brookfield, has live audio only broadcast of their school board meetings. The audio is also archived on the District 102 website for those who can’t listen live.