Board of Ed resolves to go “beyond reporting”
August 22, 2008
by Christine Yeres
Greeley commons the new stage set
Although summer meetings bring only a handful – one handful—of residents to school board meetings, even during the school year the board plays to a largely empty house, and board members know it. Last Tuesday, board member Jeffrey Mester, half of a “communications committee” with Janet Benton, revealed ways in which the board intends to increase its audience share this year, when it moves to Greeley’s academic commons.
Perhaps taking a page from last year’s curriculum playbook in which meaningful classroom conversation was favored over “delivery of content,” Mester said that this year the board wants to communicate in a more timely manner and “engage rather than report” to parents.
Getting out the word, hearing back from people
The board will keep up its snail-mailings, but also expand its web ways of reaching residents. The district’s “News & Views,” for example, will still go out in paper form, but will point readers to more detailed articles in its online version. Board President Jay Shapiro asked Mester whether the online version of “News & Views” would be updated more frequently than the twice-or-thrice-yearly paper version is able to be, since, as he put it, “it wouldn’t do to read online in December, ‘School’s Started!’” Mester answered that the district’s online “News & Views” would have rolling updates and even make use of e-alerts to subscribers. One of the board’s goals, of course, will be to capture more and more subscribers.
Prinicipals’ pages and dialogue page
Mester said that each of the six schools’ websites might consider including “principals’ pages,” updated regularly, and an interactive element through which parents can give feedback. He suggested that there might be a dialogue page on the high school website where community members can discuss how, for example, the schedule change at Greeley is progressing – “ways in which it’s going well or not going well,” he said. Benton cautioned, “It [the dialogue page] might be difficult to do because people will have to identify themselves, we’ll have to filter and maybe edit. We need to proceed carefully.”
Meetings will be at Greeley
In its July meeting the board considered keeping Seven Bridges as its meeting place for the 2008-2009 school year rather than move back to Bell because Seven Bridges has the technology for presentations administrators increasingly depend on, and Bell does not. Interviewed at the time, Superintendent David Fleishman identified the missing technology as a ceiling mounted projector that Bell auditorium’s high ceiling doesn’t permit, making setup at Bell more laborious.
But before committing to Seven Bridges for another year, the board asked Fleishman to learn whether the high school’s fairly new academic commons would fit the bill. “We researched it,” said Fleishman, “and we’re confident after getting some feedback that the central location is something people wanted. We’re confident too that we can get the right technology to do it at the high school,” and, he added in a fiscally responsible tone, “any equipment we install in the commons will be used for plenty of other things as well.” Visitors can reach the academic commons by entering the main door of the high school and walking straight back. There will be signs to show the way.
Live possibility
Although Verizon and Cablevision both have some catching up to do in wiring for “live” broadcasts both in downtown Chappaqua and at the high school, in his report Mester offered some hope that the board’s meetings will eventually be broadcast live from the commons, once the cable companies finish their part of the job. Offering people the convenience of watching the meetings from home might raise interest in the board’s doings. Board of Ed meetings are replayed on NCCTV, but less frequently and at more inconvenient times than town government meetings. Through its website, NCCTV has also added “video on demand” replay of board of ed meetings, but the taped meetings take some time to be turned into “on demand” offerings.
As Benton put it, the board wants to get “beyond reporting, to speaking and listening.” Before moving on to their next agenda item, Jeff Mester looked straight ahead into the room, smiled, and made a pitch to the empty chairs and rolling video cam, “Come to a meeting!”
Wait! There’s more!
See how the board’s next agenda item at Tuesday’s meeting dovetailed with Benton’s and Mester’s ideas for improved communication. Click here.
What do you think of the Board’s ideas to improve communciation with parents and taxpayers? Click to tell us.
Hallway outside Greeley’s academic commons, where this year’s Board of Ed meetings will take place
John Chow, David Fleishman and Lyn McKay with Jay Shapiro and Jeff Mester
Susan Haberman, Gregg Bresner and Janet Benton
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