School board meetings available online

The Newport-Mesa Unified School District's Board of Education meetings can now be viewed online from the comfort of home.

The city of Costa Mesa has partnered with the district to make videos of school board meetings available on the city's website the day after the meeting. The city already has video of the district's Jan. 11 meeting and study session online and plans to continue posting video of all future meetings, officials said.

"Now you can watch the school board meeting from anywhere around the world," said Trustee Katrina Foley.

The district meetings are also broadcast live on Costa Mesa's local cable channel and replayed in Newport Beach, said district spokeswoman Laura Boss. Newport Beach residents with AT&T U-verse are able to watch the meetings live.

Residents can also check out DVDs of the meetings for free, Boss said.

Working with the city has allowed the school district to get the meetings online without spending any money, Boss said.

Someday, the district would like to purchase its own system to stream the meetings live on its own website, she said.

"Eventually we would like to but the education budget is tight," she said.

Boss said the district's website will soon have a link to the videos.

The school board meets at 7 p.m. on the second and fourth Tuesday of the month at the District Education Center, 2985 A Bear St., Costa Mesa.

Costa Mesa already posts and archives videos of the City Council, Planning Commission, Parks and Recreation Commission and Orange County Fairgrounds Authority meetings. The city also posts videos of special events on its website.

Residents can view the district's Jan. 11 meeting and study session online at http://www.ci.costa-mesa.ca.us.