OKEEECHOBEE- The Okeechobee County School Board will be moving on from using the video conference software Zoom at their meetings. The district will instead be looking into recording their meetings and posting them to YouTube afterwards, or streaming their meetings live on YouTube.

When the COVID-19 pandemic kicked into full gear last year the Okeechobee County School Board quickly resorted to streaming their meetings on Zoom to give both Board Members and the public a safe way to attend meetings.

But that move didn’t come without a few technical hiccups.

Sound quality was frequently a issue for those trying to follow along at home, with the voices of those speaking at meetings often sounding far away and tinny.

“Zoom worked for the pandemic,” said Okeechobee County Schools IT director Shawna May at the April 19 board meeting. “But I think at this point it has kind of ran its course. The way we’re doing Zoom now, the sound is hard, it’s a mess. So we probably do need to look at some other options.”

Another benefit to uploading the meetings to the district’s YouTube channel will be that those working or busy during the normal meeting times will have a chance to watch them afterwards. With Zoom, if you missed the initial stream, there was no video saved to view later.

Other school districts in the area, such as Palm Beach County, also upload their meetings to YouTube.