Peotone School Board Rejects Mandating Live-Streaming in 4-3 Vote

Article Summary: The Peotone school board has opted against requiring its meetings to be live-streamed, finalizing a new committee policy after a 4-3 vote defeated the mandate. The decision followed a procedural move in which an absent board member was polled to break a 3-3 tie at the committee level, removing the live-stream language from the final policy draft.

Board Policy Key Points:

• The board gave final approval to a revised policy for its Committee of the Whole structure.

• A proposal to include a mandate for live-streaming meetings was discussed at a prior committee meeting, resulting in a 3-3 tie.

• The tie was broken when an absent board member was polled and voted against the mandate.

• The final policy, without the live-streaming requirement, was approved by a 7-0 vote.

PEOTONE, IL – The Peotone Board of Education will not be required to live-stream its meetings after a divided vote defeated a proposal to add the mandate to its official policies.

During its August 18 meeting, the board held a second and final reading of Policy 2:150, which governs its committee structure. A board member questioned why a previously discussed requirement to live-stream meetings was not included in the version up for adoption.

Board President Rick Uthe explained that the issue had ended in a 3-3 tie during the committee-level discussion. To break the deadlock, he reached out to board member Dawn Love, who was not in attendance at that meeting.

“I did reach out to her to get her deciding vote and she did not feel it needed to be included,” Uthe said. “With four to three, it was written as without the live streaming.”

A question was raised about the precedent of polling an absent member to vote on a committee matter via email, but the board proceeded with the vote on the policy as presented. The board then voted 7-0 to approve the policy without the live-streaming mandate.