Beginning next month, not all Beaufort County Board of Education meetings will be held in Beaufort.

The school board voted Saturday to move one of its two monthly meetings to southern Beaufort County beginning Feb. 19.

Currently the school board holds its regularly scheduled meetings -- on the first and third Tuesday of the month -- in the Beaufort County Council Chambers in the county government center on Ribaut Road in Beaufort.

A satellite location at the Hilton Head library allows community members to address the board during public comment periods via videoconferencing, but more often than not, no one uses the service.

Now, the second meeting of the month will be held at that library.

Board chairman Bill Evans said the shift is designed to make it easier for residents to attend meetings.

"The majority of our board members are from south of the Broad (River) now, and the majority of the county's population is south of the Broad (River), too," Evans said. "There's no reason we shouldn't reach out and make it easier."

Evans said he looked into the possibility of holding meetings in Bluffton, too, but the Bluffton library branch closes at 5 p.m. on Tuesdays. Holding the meetings at the library branch allows the board to continue to televise its meetings on the Beaufort County Channel at no additional cost. Equipment used to televise county council meetings is already in place there

The board voted 8-0-1 on the measure. Paul Roth abstained, and JoAnn Orishack and Earl Campbell were not present for that vote.

Follow reporter Rachel Heaton on Twitter at www.twitter.com/IPBG_Rachel.

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