The Blaine County school board demonstrated its new attitude toward communications by doing more listening than talking at a special public meeting Monday night.
About 80 parents, students, teachers, patrons and Blaine County School District officials attended the district's first "town hall" meeting at the Community Campus in Hailey. The discussion was focused on communications, both internal and with the public, and used a recently conducted communications audit as the basis for discussion.
The town hall meeting concept has been championed by Trustee Steve Guthrie, who used the need for improved communications as a campaign issue when he was elected to the board in 2009. A second town hall meeting is scheduled to be held in the spring.
The communications audit was conducted last spring by the National School Public Relations Association, which issued a report on its findings in September. The report was critical of the district in some areas, but stated that the fact that the audit was conducted at all demonstrated that the district recognized its shortcomings and wanted to improve.
Bob Noyed, a public relations specialist who conducted the audit, discussed highlights of the findings in a video presentation shown at the beginning of the town hall meeting.
Noyed reported that "word of mouth and local newspapers" are key sources of information about the district, a situation that demonstrates the district is not doing enough communicating itself. He further reported that "trust has improved, but a gap still exists," that the new webcasts of school board meetings are a step in the right direction, that the district does a good job of communicating with Hispanic parents and that the district needs to focus more resources on communications.
One recommendation from the audit report is that the district hire a full-time communications director. The issue is being considered by the school board, but several attendees at the town hall meeting objected to the idea.
"I think that's not a good job right now to hire someone for that position," said Hailey resident Annie Weber, citing as reasons the present state of the economy and the fact that other school districts are losing personnel. "I think that hiring someone for that is ridiculous."
Weber also commented on the inconsistency of information from the district, saying: "Some schools are good at getting information out to the community and some don't do it as well."
Hailey resident Frank Rowland said the district needs to communication better with senior citizens.
"I guess we feel a bit disenfranchised," Rowland said. "Seniors have a huge stake in your budget and aren't being properly engaged."
Hailey resident Bob Corker suggested that the district and patrons develop a "common definition" of what constitutes a good education. He noted that test scores alone are not enough of a measurement.
"How do we measure that as a community?" Corker asked.
Board Chair Julie Dahlgren said in an interview that Corker's suggestion might be the right topic for the next town hall meeting.
"We committed to have two this year," Dahlgren said. "The next one will be specific to a curriculum review or what makes a good education."
Dahlgren said she was happy with the meeting results.
"I think it went well," she said. "I think it was a reasonable meeting. We're pleased at the turnout and we're pleased with the content. We're learning."
Terry Smith: tsmith@mtexpress.com
Hailey resident Annie Weber was one of about 80 people who attended a Blaine County School District town hall meeting on communications Monday night at the Community Campus in Hailey. Weber told district officials and the board of trustees that “some schools are good at getting information out to the community and some don’t do it as well.” Photo by Willy Cook
