Souderton Area School Board to begin livestreaming board meetings

The Souderton Area School Board Thursday, Feb. 27 approved a policy to begin livestreaming board meetings following months of requests from parents and community members.

The requests from the public called for greater transparency and accessibility surrounding board proceedings. The current policy only allows for recordings of board action and committee meetings, which are posted on the district website for one year.

Under the new policy, board action and committee meetings will be livestreamed on Zoom or a comparable livestreaming platform and archived on the district’s website for three years. The links to the livestream will be published on the district’s website shortly before the start of each meeting. Viewers will not be permitted to submit comments or raise hands during livestreams.

At Thursday’s meeting, community members commended the new policy as a step in the right direction.

“It will be very beneficial,” said Rosemary Buetikofer. “Not everyone in the community is able to come to meetings in person.”

Residents, however, continued requesting additional changes, including indefinite storage of board meetings, the ability to pre-submit public comments and the attachment of financial documents to agenda items.

“It is counterproductive if we don’t make these additional considerations for revisions now,” said Corinne DeGeiso. “I will keep asking for it. Souderton deserves better.”

The new policy is effective immediately.

District events

Student representative Nadia Choe reported on some recent district events, including the January 25 Winter Ball, attended by over 700 students; the January 31 Unified Polar Plunge at Citizens Bank Park, which benefits programming for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and the February 8 Souderton Area High School science fair, featuring several first place winners who will be invited to the state competition in May. She also highlighted “Souderthon 2025,” which raised $85,730 for the Peter Powerhouse Foundation, a local organization that supports childhood cancer victims.

The board took time to recognize the high school’s National Merit Scholarship students, including finalist Ahsan Rahman as well as Feyitele Akingbade, Ronan Carolan, Evan Cole, Henry Dang, Giovanni Iervolino, Aaron Im, Sarah Kemmerer, Yerin Kim and Walker Page.

The next SASD school board meeting is on March 27 at 7 p.m. For more information, visit soudertonsd.org

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