ADAMS TWP — Mars Area School District unanimously voted at a meeting Tuesday, March 12, to stop streaming school board meetings via Zoom and eliminate virtual participation because of security concerns.

Board directors opted instead to broadcast school board meetings on YouTube, with recorded videos being removed after a week of being posted.

The decision is effective immediately.

After the video of a school board meeting is removed, parents, guardians and interested community members can read the meeting minutes on the district’s website.

Superintendent Mark Gross said the continuation of virtual participation on Zoom could be cause for security concerns, noting there would be no way of verifying or knowing the identity of users behind a screen.

Gross said other school districts have done away with Zoom.

Two community members — who joined virtually — objected to the decision.

Beth Ziegler told the school board eliminating virtual participation would be a barrier for some to be active in school board meetings, if they are not able to attend for health reasons.

“I wish we could have been a little bit more forward thinking about trying to find a way for people to participate,” Ziegler said. “I can’t imagine if my (health) situation hadn’t been resolved, being cut out of the process to participate in these meetings. I wish we could have figured out a way to lower barriers to participate in these public meetings, instead of making it harder for some people.”

Matthew Evans, who said he agreed with eliminating virtual participation, asked the board to reconsider its decision to take down recorded videos of school board meetings after a week of being posted.

He said Seneca Valley School District, North Allegheny and Fox Chapel have kept a log of recorded school board meetings on YouTube, some dating back to 2020.

“I appreciate making the switch from Zoom to YouTube,” Evans said. “I think that does follow what other districts are doing … [but] taking down the videos after one week — that is not something other districts are doing.”

“(Meeting) minutes are great, but a lot of times, like with curriculum presentations, you miss a lot of that stuff from just reading the minutes,” he said.