Comunicate, Cubed

To our Parent Coordinators, Webmasters, Newsletter Editors, Communication Committee Members, and all those who receive this as a forward because someone thought they could help or because I just didn’t know who they were:
(If you receive this as a forward, please send me an intro email about you and what you do. One thing I am trying to do is compile an idea of who does what and where and who)

First, I want to apologize to everyone for how hurried this is. I especially want to apologize to any coordinators who heard about this the first time at a meeting or in the newsletter. It was not my intention to move forward without you, it was only my intention to get the idea in the subconscious of the school before the holidays.

I am afraid this hardly counts as an email anymore, so I am also sending it as an attachment in Word so it is more easily read. My goal is to give everyone some ideas to chew on over the holidays so that we aren’t surprising anyone after we get back. I have to say that while I am willing to help with any nagging questions this information might raise and gather excellent ideas to compile into meeting notes and agenda points, mostly I am hoping to let it rest and start the conversation in January. Any problem that need solving have not already been addressed by the school aren’t going to be handled by us over Christmas holiday anyway – so enjoy and don’t worry. I promise the conversation we are starting it isn’t as complicated or as long as it appears -but because I want to be clear and I want to be done please forgive any repetitiveness, over explanations and editing errors that may be in this document.

As you are aware many vectors for communication were set up at the beginning of the school year but given the reality that we are creating these from scratch, those vectors were not set in motion with as much planning and forethought as they might have been. To be honest, we likely didn’t have any idea how they might best fulfill the needs of our new community. Now, hopefully, we have settled in a bit and can come together and talk about how we are doing on our own, share our successes, keep each other from repeating our failures and work out how to make everyone really feel like a stakeholder.

The first and main order of business is to work more with our room/grade coordinators.
My exceedingly informal surveys have told me that most of us have some system for facilitating communication between the teacher and the parent. I would like to see us take on a slightly larger role and expand that communicate to include other decision-making bodies at the school. I think that if we can share information in more personal ways we can not only increase awareness of that information but also enhance the community building that we are all so eager to partake of.

Sarah has agreed to create some time for all of the parent coordinators to meet with her once a month. The purpose of these meetings is to discuss how the communication is working and to discuss parent concerns that do not pertain to some already formed committee. I realize these meetings are likely to happen during school hours and I would like to see us supporting each other in a way that even if we cannot attend a meeting our ideas and needs can be presented on our behalf. In that way, I would like to see us setting the example for the entire community that physical attendance is not a hindrance to effective communication.

Let me present an example of how I see us working together. I would like you to consider how closely this follows what actually happens in a more random and round about way right now and imagine the possibilities if we knew it was not only acceptable but expected that we worked in this way.

This is an actual example. The k-2 wing is facilitating a discussion about the current lunch model in that wing. A survey on satisfaction with current methods and suggestions for alternate ideas needs to be directed to those parents of k-2 children that are most affected by this change. Those parents also need someone in their class, someone they can identify in the hall preferably, to say they want to write that survey or compile that information or explore the benefits and detractions for all possible lunching options. That person ought to know there is a discussion happening about lunching. (I want to say here that I am a parent coordinator and I have heard vague conversation that people are upset about the way the lunches are going and it took me completely by surprise that so many people seem to have an opinion on it when we started discussing it at the k-2 meeting with Sarah.) Now, if parents know they can come to their coordinators with their concerns, the coordinators can ask each other if they are hearing anything about, in this case, lunching. If it does seem to be the case an interested parent can be located to coordinate the survey and options. At this point, I think a short two-sentence announcement in the newsletter asking for input on where k-2 students eat lunch and a person to contact is appropriate. Then that information can be brought to Sarah about how the parents as a whole feel about the lunching in the k-2 wing. At that point Sarah can help us make the changes that will improve the lunching situation. I think this will not only utilize her time more effectively, but it will free up time for her to deal with different needs.

This model is scalable. It will work if there is a concern pertinent only to one grade/classroom and it will work if there is a concern of interest to the entire school. This model ask only that the parents be informed that the room coordinator they already know is someone that has access to information and has a way to coordinate information to see that something actually happens. This model only asks of room parents that they speak with each other and that have access to the information of what committees exist, what they do, and who their contact person is. The most difficult thing this model asks is that room parents take the concerns of their parents sincerely and sees that those parents achieve resolution, either by directing them to the person in charge of their area of concern or helping them set up a means of exploring that concern. I understand that this model involves a measure of sensitivity, but it is in no way to replace a parents right and responsibility to approach Sarah. If someone comes to you with something that is personal or involves harm in any way, please direct them to Sarah and stay out of it. Please don’t gossip, which involves sharing information with the intent to harm. And that is the end of the ethical training today.

(The rest of this mostly consists of me throwing some ideas around that will need group consensus – but I think they are still worth reading.)

It is my hope that effectively harnessing the abilities of multiple people to direct traffic will also clear other lines of communication. One of the more abused means of getting the word out is the Messenger. I know that Stephanie and Ginny work really hard to put all that information together, and I know I work really hard to try to read and digest all of it. Understand that I know that there are some announcements of concern to the whole school and I think it is vital they have the space to be seen. It is my opinion, however, that much of what should go in the Messenger (and doesn’t always make it) are references to information that is located in another place. However, I think the larger description of many activities is better directed to the stake holding parents themselves. Let me be clear that I absolutely believe in disclosure and transparency so that everyone knows what is going on.

For example, let me draw an example from last week’s newsletter. Reminders in the newsletter that the new minutes of site council are on the website with a link provided and notice that they have been added to the site council binder or posted on the bulletin board for committees is good. Publishing the site council minutes in the newsletter (which didn’t exactly happen) would just takes up a lot of space and makes it hard to get through all the information that is out there and available. Better to leave room for really big announcements regarding site council, like the place and time for a school forum on the class distribution of the k-2 wing and announcements that they are soliciting email and written information from parents who will not be able to attend with directions on where that information should go.

I realize that referencing the website is well and good, but the information has to be there first. We are coming to that. I am including the website coordinator in this communication because I want to touch base with everyone before we go on break so that come the first week of January no one is taken by surprise. Some things in the works regarding the website include getting natural note takers and potential transcribers to connect and make this information available. I am trying to gather a group of people who volunteer as transcribers. Note taking is usually happening at all meetings, but getting them typed and posted somewhere is another project entirely. I am hoping I can find some people with half an hour a month or so to help with this. I am going to need to work with Polly Birnbaum about how we can best get things like minutes from PTA and site council on the site. I know someone has also been working with her about getting a better calendaring system in place. If you know who that is, I would love for you forward this to them and get them in contact with me. If you know anyone who often attends meetings and is a compulsive writer please send them my way.

The other main stakeholders I want to include in this venture are some of the most important but they got tucked in here last because I need to listen to them more than I need to talk. They are the communications committee on the site council. I am also interested in including in less direct ways the other committees on site council, since they are concerned with how to communicate with the larger school and I would also like to include the secretaries and curriculum teams.

If any of you think of someone who really needs to be a part of this conversation, please forward this to them and send me something back about then so that they can be included. If I forget someone obvious or even someone I have mentioned in the email, please forgive me - it was not intentional.

The communications committee on the site council is working on getting mailing lists through the district to work. I applaud their effort, as I have never heard much good about peoplesoft. At this time I am not setting up a mailing list for the coordinators and other people related to communication but if we decide we need or would like a space to hold more regular and open-ended conversations it is always a possibility. I have my own server to run a list from. This is another reason to let me know who might be important in getting synaptic connections firing - so I can add them to the list.

Have a good holiday and I will find you after we get back in January.