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    Committee Update

     

    12/5/2018

    The Communication Committee has met on 9/25/18, 10/23/18, 11/27/18.

    The Committee reviewed the Vision Statement and goals after review and revision by the district leadership team.

    The Committee created a rough draft of a Communication Framework, which is aspirational and a guide for ongoing effort.

    The Committee made a recommendation to the district leadership team to adopt PowerSchool Learning as the primary platform for classroom communication focusing on academics and student expectations.

    The Committee made a recommendation to the district leadership team to adopt Facebook for District level communication, especially that pertaining to the budget process, initiatives, and progress against approved budgetary items.

     

    2/8/2018

    A newly drafted Vision Statement was shared with the committee and discussed

     

    Core Value term definitions were shared and discussed. There was some overlap with the way the vision statement was written (incorporating the terms) so revision is in progress.

     

    A communication workflow was shared and discussed. A redraft will generalize roles (rather than names), consider redundancy/backup, and tweaked to show areas in need of refinement.

     

    The next step will be to review a baseline set of goals with district leadership to establish common practices. Revision of vision, core values, and workflow will happen via email.

     

    12/7/2017

     

    Core value terms were discussed and the committee agreed to a set of 8 core values related to communication. The next step will be to define the terms for clarity and shared expections. 

    Subcommittees were formed to take another look at the vision statement, language and definition of core value terms, a workflow of current communication practice as a starting point, looking at print to digital, what training is needed, and establishing minimum requirements on the parts of the community (what are the givens regarding communicating with the community?)

     

    10/17/2017

    A DRAFT set of goals and objectives was shared to focus energy and establish plans for ongoing communication improvement.

     

    The vision statement was discussed and raised questions about how terms are defined and what we aspire to achieve

     

    A review of the goals generated discussion to show that we need to work on defining terms and establishing roles. It was agreed that social media has changed the communication dynamic. The district provides information via the website, but that does not mean the community will go there to find it. (For example, posting questions to social media about school hours, rather than looking them up on the website.)

     

    It was agreed that further work was needed on the vision statement and goals.

     

     

    May 16, 2017

    Reviewed activity and set stage for next school year

     

    The district website will list the different information systems and provide information each system and how to access: https://www.sau26.org/Domain/868

     

    Programs and Initiatives will be listed and described

     

    Policies related to communication will be reviewed and revised as necessary

     

    Progress reporting was handed off to a group working on revising homework protocols (grades 7-12) and the district report card committee (grades K-6)

     

    The Learning Management System Taskforce selected PS Learning to be implemented for the Fall of 2017

     

    More work will be done to ensure school websites are up to date, accurate and consistent. Calendar maintenance will require training and establishing protocols

     

    Parent-Teacher conferences were discussed. The HS has started using an online system for registering for conferences. The elementary schools use different systems and have more flexibility. The overall role of a parent-teacher conference seems to shift as students move up. It was agreed that this is an opportunity for constructive dialog about all aspects of a student’s school-life, not just a grade/performance update.

     

    Parent-Student Handbooks – need to continue to work to streamline and move online

     

    New School Year transition support – establish FAQ or other “need to know” information for parents as they transition between schools. There are other committees in the district looking at smoothing transitions for students, particularly those with student supports in place for learning and social-emotional well-being.

     

    March 16, 2017

     

    The Communication Committee has met several times over the course of the past six months. During this time we reviewed the results of the Parent Communication survey, grouped the issues by topic area, and now different working groups have been focused on addressing different communication concerns and opportunities. At this point identified issues have been referred to the District Leadership Team for further development. Here are some of the broad areas in progress:

    • PowerSchool grade input, coding, and usage standardization
    • Transitions between schools (this includes looking at how information is presented as well as seeking to create consistency of practice)
      • The transitions group is also looking at notification about events, activities, and deadlines for the different schools
    • Update of communication policy and guidelines

    A Learning Management System Taskforce has also been formed to look at specific issues regarding streamlining the posting of homework, assignments, and providing specific classroom to student/family information. We are evaluating different systems (Schoology is the system in current use and will be evaluated alongside other options) and will make a decision in the spring for a summer roll out in preparation for Fall of the 2017-18 school year. 

    The Communication Committee will continue to meet.