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March 31, 2008

Share the Success Clinic

Accountability and Community Engagement: Communicating District Progress and Performance to the Public in a Continuous Improvement Model

Monday, March 31, 2008 11:15 AM-12:30 PM

Can your Board of Education go paperless? Is an electronic board meeting right for your district? Can you at the same time address accountability and community engagement on a budget? . BoardDocs Emerald Data provides a paperless governance solution. BoardDocs features contribute to a better experience for staff, board of education and the public. (See www.boarddocs.com. The phone number is 800-407-0141) This paperless solution complies with the open meetings act.

Marguardt School District 15 (Glendale, Illinois) http://www.d15.us/schools/mms/staff/678-encore.php highlighted the way to discuss accountability and community engagement. Their goal is to communicate district progress and performance to the public in a continuous improvement environment through BoardDocs Emerald Data.

1. Parent and community access to district information is important. Monthly communication with the community via public board meetings is a constant. BoardDocs educates and involves parents, students, and community stakeholders concerning district business and progress in achieving district goals. It helps build ongoing partnerships with community stakeholders. The public access page also allows the public to view committee meeting and agendas. Minutes of all meetings facilitate access to public information. The district’s mission and goals is the centerpiece of the BoardDocs homepage. All policies are also included.

2. The use of technology (BoardDocs Emerald Data Solutions) enhances community engagement. A search feature allows the constituent to quickly find answers. The superintendent and central office verified the paperless solution helps increase transparency with the public. The paper mailing to all constituents includes the web links to the district’s homepage and BoardDocs. Usually the superintendent’s executive assistant inputs the agenda, takes the minutes online, and receives ongoing upgrades. Having a director of technology helps coordinate the needs of the district with the wireless portal.

3. At the board level wireless communication increases internal communication in an affordable and immediate manner. This includes weekly reviews from central officers and committee meetings and agendas.

4. Benefits abound. It has proven to be cost effective. It makes more efficient use of time and personnel within the District. Also the flow and accessibility of information between the Board, community, parents and staff is increased.

5. The private site is password protected and visible only to specific members on the board and central office.

Unique properties of Marquardt School District 15

Essential standards of core subjects are in alignment. They are consistent between schools horizontally by grade and vertically between grades. This provides smooth transitions for student learning. Assessments are reliable and formative. The district has plans that address those students that don’t learn standards. Definite roles of strategic and operational responsibilities exist to advance student learning. At the base are core values.

Customer service requires input from stakeholders. Quarterly at parent/teach conferences, parents take a satisfaction survey. Staff and students also take the survey. The same twenty-five questions are asked each time. (Gallup can help your district ask the key questions for a healthy climate and educational culture.) From the results, the district addresses issues needing improvement.

Emerald Data BoardDocs can include a district scorecard. Each district can publish what it uniquely determines as most important. The input is displayed on the district BoardDoc site. Improve the system and you’ll improve results. It includes student achievement, safe and nurturing environment, fiscal health, customer service, and quality personnel. The priorities have corresponding goals. Each goal has indicators and timing. The priorities are hyperlinked to graphs and charts that are easily read by the public visiting the web site. This encourages consistent improvement. The school district can disaggregate the scorecard by school.

Monday, March 31, 2008

Posted by Molly O'Holleran, Blog Team, at 8:31 PM | Educational Sessions & Workshops

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