POTSDAM -- Two St. Lawrence-Lewis BOCES leaders, Tom Burns and Steve Todd, were guests on this semester’s North Country Matters, the local video news magazine produced by WCKN under the direction of Dan Dullea of the Center for Excellence in Communication at Clarkson University.

St. Lawrence-Lewis BOCES School Superintendent Tom Burns sat down with AAUW members Donna Seymour and Ann Carvill, Potsdam, to discuss the basics of school mergers and consolidations, something that several North Country schools are looking into. The show airs on WCKN, Cable Channel 30 on Time Warner at 7:30 pm on Oct. 7 and 8.

The second show, airing at 8 p.m. both days, features St. Lawrence-Lewis BOCES Assistant Superintendent Superintendent Steve Todd discussing how important grant writing has become to school education funding. Both the federal government and NYS are using the competitive grant process to specific offer school funding opportunities to districts. Todd talks about how BOCES can support small rural schools in this process.

The NCM civic partners working to educate North Country residents about critical public policy issues facing our region include AAUW-St. Lawrence County, the League of Women Voters of St. Lawrence County, and Clarkson Media and Mass Communication students, who provide the technical expertise for the productions. The shows are taped in the WCKN studio on the Clarkson campus.

In addition to local broadcasts, new and previous North Country Matters shows are also available on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/danieledullea.