Transparency and Parental Involvement

As you may know, the school board had a work session on Tuesday, July 13. What is interesting is how difficult it was to find this out. Incidentally, one of the issues discussed was the controversial mission statement.

How does one find out about upcoming meetings? I went to the website. I was able to find a downloadable pdf of 2010 meetings. The only meeting in July is the regular board meeting on July 20. Someone mentioned, after the fact, that the Work Session was announced in the paper, but there wasn't anything obvious on the 'meeting' tab of the website. The school board calendar lists all of the previous events, but, as of yesterday, had nothing going forward. Today, Friday, July 16, the July 20 meeting is listed. There is nothing listed yet for August.

The next question I had was whether or not the July 13 meeting replaced the July 20 meeting. My understanding is that it did not.

In trying to figure out how to attend some of these meetings, I was told that the best way to find out would be to call the district and ask.

With all due respect, board meetings, and other public district events, should be, at least, noted on the home page of the website. The note could link to more information in other pages, but this should be one of the most important purposes of the website--communication with the public.

I am committed to making sure the district website is used as a primary communication portal. Let's make it easy for families to get involved.