JEFFERSON TWP — While the video recordings of the Knoch School Board meetings were available for viewing on the district website for almost three years, they have now been taken down.

One school board member, Rebecca Boyd, shared her disappointment on Wednesday with her fellow board members and administrators that the videos were removed without notice.

Boyd said she feels the videos afforded the board a level of transparency, as those who cannot attend the meetings can observe the board’s actions.

Boyd also said residents and others could access the videos to view important presentations given to the board, especially those given by architects and contractors involved in the district’s ongoing $35 million high school renovation project.

Tom Breth, district solicitor, said Friday that when the district began livestreaming the school board meetings during the coronavirus pandemic, administration decided to also catalog the meeting videos on the website for those who were reluctant to attend meetings for health reasons.

When the board decided to stop streaming the meetings beginning this year, Breth said Donna Eakin, board president, approached him about whether the videos should remain on the district website.

“The board’s official record of the meetings are the minutes,” Breth said. “That is the only thing they are legally obligated to maintain.”

Breth said he recommended the videos be removed from the website, which he said is consistent with advice from the Pennsylvania School Boards Association.

He said the removal of the videos from the district website is not connected to the recent discussions over the invocation given at the beginning of each board meeting.

Breth said no one anticipated the removal of the videos “would be controversial in any manner.”

Regarding architect presentations related to the high school improvement project, Breth said administrators have made them available on the website.

He said removing the videos from the website was done simply because the meetings no longer are livestreamed.

“It’s quite insignificant,” Breth said.