The San Marcos CISD board of trustees decided Feb. 16 that they are ready for lights and cameras.

The board unanimously approved live streaming future meetings online, with the goal of eventually televising meetings.

SMCISD Technology Director Greg Hubenak said the district could utilize the athletic department's equipment to live stream its March meeting. Hubenak estimated that live streaming meetings would cost the district about $6,000 in its first year.

"We don't necessarily need a camcorder in the back of the room panned out," Hubenak said. "We need multiple camera angles. We have to have the ability to capture a presentation like this from the computer and show it to the audience as well, with a picture-in-picture type capability."

Hubenak called live streaming over the Internet the low-hanging fruit of the discussion. Cable television broadcasts would be more challenging, but a potential partnership between the school district and the city could make TV broadcasts more realistic, Hubenak said.

"[For cable TV broadcasts]we didnt look too much further than the city of San Marcos," he said. "They have the channels we need in order to get this content there. I don't think were quite at the point where we would want to entertain our own channel. So piggybacking seems possible."

The total cost of televising meetings is not yet known because the partnership between the city and district has not been fully formulated yet.

The city of San Marcos broadcasts meetings on Time Warner Cable Channel 10 and Grande Channel 16.

As I speak to the community there is a lot of support for getting out and adding transparency to our business, and I think we should move forward, said trustee John Crowley.