Albert Lea High School students and teacher, Max Jeffrey, have started a cable-access channel so that community members can become more involved in the Albert Lea School District.

Jeffrey is a business instructor at ALHS and works with students on their live broadcast news show, Tiger Vision. He said Superintendent Mike Funk has been wanting a cable-access channel, and Jeffrey is excited to be a part of the project.

“One of my goals this year for the district is to increase the amount of communication between the district and the public,” Funk said. “There are many great things occurring within the Albert Lea school system that the public is not aware of.”

Funk said he hoped the cable-access channel will allow students, parents, family and community members a chance to see what students and teachers are doing.

“It will help promote our district and bring the community closer together,” Jeffrey said.

Currently the channel is available to residents who have a digital cable converter box on channel 4. In the next few weeks the channel will be available for those with analog television. For high-definition televisions the channel is 97-6.

Jeffrey said the channel will try to feature elementary schools, the middle school, high school, Brookside Education Center, the Area Learning Center and Community Education. He said he’s teaching his students how to make billboards, or screen shots with information on them. The students may also in the future have a news program partnering with the high school newspaper, the AhLaHaSa.

“I think the kids are going to take ownership of it,” Jeffrey said.

Jeffrey said many different types of things could be broadcast, including sports games, concerts, plays or pertinent information. It is also possible that school board meetings may be broadcast in the future, similar to how the Albert Lea City Council broadcasts theirs. One of the main obstacles right now is the lack of cameras in the school board room.

Jeffrey also hopes to have a website that will have a schedule of programming and possibly live web streaming of video from sports games or graduation ceremonies.

“This is going to evolve,” Jeffrey said.