SARATOGA SPRINGS — Two Saratoga Springs High School students were at the anchor desk Friday preparing for the first telecast from the school’s new television studio.

Chloe Holgate, a senior who will attend SUNY Geneseo in the fall, interviewed school board candidate Jeffrey Piro.

A production crew of six was in another room of the sparkling new studio monitoring sound, light, and signal strength.

“This is our first broadcast ever,” Holgate said as she looked over a list of questions to ask the candidate.

Later Friday, Lara Bryfonski, a senior who will attend Boston University in the fall, interviewed other candidates in Tuesday’s school district election.

The first broadcast will be aired Tuesday night after the polls close in the high school’s teaching auditorium during a Board of Education meeting.

The interviews of the three current school board members, who are running for re-election without opposition, will be aired along with voting results on the school district’s $107 million 2008-09 budget.

Members of the district’s information technology staff are preparing graphics so the voting on the school budget and two spending propositions can be shown according to polling place.

Work on the state-of-the-art television studio started two years ago with an empty room near the high school’s teaching auditorium, said David L’Hommedieu, the city school district’s director of information technology.

That year L’Hommedieu contacted local television stations to learn if they had any used equipment or furniture they could donate to the planned studio.

News Channel 9 donated anchor desks and “risers,” platforms on which the desks stand, as well as some other furniture.

In early 2007, the district learned that state Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno, R-Brunswick, had obtained a $50,000 technology grant for the studio.

Throughout the winter and spring of 2007 the high school’s television committee discussed plans for the studio and objectives for eventually integrating television studio technology into the high school curriculum.

The committee visited the New School of Television and Radio in Albany as well as existing school television studios at the Iroquois Middle School in Niskayuna and at Guilderland High School.

The television and studio equipment list was created and put out to bid. The equipment contracts were awarded last spring. The equipment was installed over the winter and ready for use this spring.

“There are great opportunities here,” L’Hommedieu said.

“Some students like to speak in front of people,” he said. But other students would rather be in the control room, creating graphics and monitoring sound and signal.

He said television production is a real team effort that involves many different skills. “The students learn to work as a team,” he said.

At present, the district does not have a television program in its curriculum. The students participating in the first telecast are volunteers who are active in the high school’s film club.

L’Hommedieu said the district television committee, which includes faculty and administrators, sees the studio being used first by a student television club.

This club program would eventually be incorporated into the high school curriculum.

“We see this as being a curriculum component,” L’Hommedieu said.

The television studio will also be used for in-school programs such as daily news and weather updates as well as concerts and recitals that showcase student talent.

L’Hommedieu has a list of nearly 40 elements that could be incorporated into a television studio curriculum.

This spring, staff members learned how to use the sophisticated studio equipment so that they, in turn, will be able to show students how to use it.

All the production people behind Tuesday’s first telecast are district technology staff members, including John Piscitelli as technical director, Lorraine Montgomery as graphics technician, James Nair as audio technician, and Donna Andress as digital image technician.