West Windsor-Plainsboro school board has approved a five-year interlocal services agreement with Plainsboro Township for cable television programming. The agreement, approved at the board’s October 23 meeting, sets forth commitments and responsibilities for both parties regarding programming on the township’s local cable channel.##M:[more]##
Plainsboro and West Windsor each have a dedicated television channel for local municipal and school programming.
Under the approved agreement with Plainsboro — the school board has to approve a separate agreement with both towns — the township provides the local channel and pays $28,”000 a year to the school district to employ a station manager. West Windsor pays the other half of his salary.
“Basically the agreement is sort of rules for use,” said Steven Mayer, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, after the meeting. “The station manager splits time between the three parties, and the two townships fund his salary. The school district supplies equipment and a portion of his time.”
The school district is responsible for maintaining and equipping the bulletin board and over-ride systems and the district’s television studios. It also has title to the studio equipment and is responsible for its maintenance, upkeep and replacement. The station manager handles the municipal and school programming for the channel.
The station manager tapes West Windsor Township Council meetings and places them on the channel, as West Windsor has requested for part of its programming. The draft of the West Windsor agreement is still being reviewed by the Township Council.
Under the approved agreement with Plainsboro, the school district is given from 7 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on weekdays and from 4:30 p.m. to midnight on Tuesdays and Thursdays to air its programming on Plainsboro channels. Plainsboro municipal programming will run at all other times. The community bulletin board in Plainsboro will show both municipal and school announcements.
Educational programming by the school district is broadcast to both West Windsor and Plainsboro, but municipal programming by the two municipalities is only broadcast within each respective town.
Mayer said the agreement is beneficial to the school district because “we put pieces up that the kids create and some pieces that promote things in the district.” And it’s virtually at no cost to the district.
In other business during the meeting, the board’s auditor, Scott Clelland presented the board with its annual audit report, which showed that the district continued to be in good financial position. Last school year the board refunded debt for the second consecutive year, issued a refund on its referendum and filed retroactive paperwork regarding prior school construction grant money it never received from the state, which it is hoping to see come in shortly, he said.
He also said there was nothing with which the board or the public should be concerned.
During the meeting, the board also presented its 2006-07 Violence and Vandalism Report. The number of incidents — 61 in total — at the district last year is comparable to that of the prior year, where there was a total of 64.
