The Rochester school district has an unenviable communications challenge
The Rochester school district
has an unenviable communications challenge. School officials have a slew of
audiences, many with different needs and interests. And the district’s website hasn’t been a particularly helpful communications tool.
But the website has been given a much needed makeover. The site isn’t
entirely new – many of the features are the same -but it’s fresh, upbeat, and much easier to read and navigate. The site moves
some of the district’s more pressing concerns about programs and events to the
center of the home page: registering your child for school or signing up for
ParentConnectxp, for instance. The latter gives parents access to an online
system that tracks students’ daily performance.
School board and special meetings are clearly posted on the left side of the
home page, with quick links on the right. Social media links are more
prominently featured at the top of the page. And the site can be converted from
English to a number of different languages.
But there are still some things about the site that are clumsy. It’s not
easy, for instance, to search for a board policy. And the site uses almost half
the home page for a photo that has no caption and doesn’t tell us anything.
With so many schools, students, and teachers, there should be a new photo and
something to report every day.
But a bigger missed opportunity is the absence of any commentary or discussion
with Superintendent Bolgen Vargas or school board members. The site could be
much more dynamic if school officials used it to talk to parents and students
about important issues, such as attendance, summer reading, and new
developments in education.
Local college leaders are doing a much better job at this. District
officials, however, have been slow to use the website. Their correspondence is
mainly behind the scenes with each other. A daily or weekly blog from the
superintendent and a more interactive school board page might help to build
something officials say they need: a more engaged community.
This article appears in Jul 18-24, 2012.
