East Penn School Board Meetings Now Online

Thanks to the efforts of John Donches, 559 Minor St., East Penn School District school board meetings are now being video taped and made available online.

Donches addressed the school board during the public comment portion of Monday night’s school board meeting to share what he called the “good news” -- after asking the board to make the meetings available on the district Web site for nearly two years, he said, he managed to get the meetings online himself.

, who is running for Emmaus Borough Council, has been a regular fixture and East Penn school board meetings, championing the cause of Web casting meetings. Recapping his crusade, Donches said the board repeatedly told him that the $8,000 price tag associated with his request was the stumbling block, but “the public could help out to make this a possibility if they want.”

So, Donches got himself a Web site (eprc.wordpress.com), a partner who knows how to get video footage on the Internet (via YouTube), and brought a video camera and a tripod to Monday night’s meeting.

He said it will take about a week to turn a video around. Right now, he said, there are videos of two past board meetings on the site.

Reading from a prepared statement, Donches said: “I hope everyone can and will take advantage of this service to be able to become more informed as to the actions of their school board and the superintendent take in running the district.

“If you work at the time these meetings take place, have very young children and can’t find a baby sitter or for any other reason you may have, this now allows the general public to enjoy the ability of access to these meetings when it best suits the taxpayer’s schedule,”  he said.

The school board meetings can be found online at eprc.wordpress.com. EPRC stands for East Penn Reform Coalition.