NSPRA's Communication Audit Report - Harford County Public ...

Information timeliness
■ Good; except for HR.
Opportunities for involvement/engagement
■ Special Ed offers a lot of workshops for parents.
■ “If you want to be involved, there are plenty of opportunities, but you have to seek them out.”
■ There are lots of opportunities; the issue is with communities, not the district. It may be harder
for people to participate these days.
Input into decisions
■ Depends on the position one holds. Board and administration don’t necessarily listen to
everyone.
■ Might be helpful to meet together with the school secretaries. HR won’t know staff have
concerns or might squelch misperceptions.
■ This group would like to meet for a professional development discussion (not to be taught
anything) to share ideas and concerns. Problem is finding time to be away from the office or
school.
■ Need to be able to come together and talk about what they can do better (instead of attending
another class on phone skills). Meet and confer didn’t make a difference.
Greatest challenges facing the district
■ BRAC.
■ Traffic.
■ Gangs.
■ Overcrowding.
■ Getting more children who are suffering from more major social/behavioral issues. Teachers
aren’t trained to deal with it. Public perception is that every child’s needs have to be met by the
school system.
Communication improvements
■ Individual comments included:
• Are central office departments fully aware of what goes on in other offices?
• Lots of central office staff don’t understand what it’s like to be in a school. It’s an
entirely different type of busy.
• Their bosses aren’t always in the office so they get sketchy information at times.
• Communication not any better with move to new administrative building.
• Maybe have a morning announcement, daily e-mail update or message from the
superintendent every Monday morning.
• District weighs heavy on publication side and not so much on information.
• Need to be more proactive (always wait for media to come to district).
• “We have 12 different types of calendars. Can’t we have just one?”
NSPRA Communication Audit 74 Harford County Public Schools