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

Web site
■ In general, the web site is easy to use and navigate.
■ Individual comments included:
• The pictures that come up with the news stories are very nice.
• “As administrators, we go to the web site for a purpose, and for us, it’s easy to navigate.”
• Sometimes it is hard to know where to go for what – SharePoint, InfoWeb, or web site.
• “If we could just put our log-on in once and not have to keep re-entering it to access
information, it would be better.”
• It would be nice to have a search feature that could go through all of the options at once.
• The site is useful for accessing Board agendas and phone numbers.
Communication challenges/Improvements
■ E-mail volume and other e-mail related issues.
■ More proactive, advance communication.
■ Individual comments included:
• Many people rely too much on electronic communication and forget the need for personal
contact. Sometimes the phone or face-to-face is needed.
• Principals don’t have to be the point of distribution for all information. The lead secretary
could be used to pass information through that channel. Department chairs in the schools
could also be a conduit. “We waste time following up on who is following up and
duplicating efforts.”
• SharePoint has so much on it that it is time-consuming and can be inefficient for us.
“Why can’t we attach documents to e-mails?”
Parent/Community involvement
■ District offers many opportunities for parent and community involvement.
■ Individual comments included:
• The district solicits comments on policies and issues. Hold forums, study groups or town
meetings.
• Parents are invited to be part of committees and to provide input. District is currently
looking at a uniform policy, so there is a committee and a planned survey to get input
before moving forward.
• The district is currently sending out 2,000 surveys about Secondary School Reform.
• Secondary principals have input into decisions and feel they are listened to and heard.
Greatest challenges facing the district
■ Technology issues continue to be a challenge.
■ Individual comments included:
• A consistent piece of technology software is needed for school use. “This fall, we all
experienced problems with scheduling because we could only have certain people using
the system at one time and we had to hand out written schedules at the middle and high
school levels because the hardware-software could not handle all the needed volume.”
• Walking the balance between what people need to know and what they don’t need to
know is difficult.
• Ongoing issue of security.
NSPRA Communication Audit 86 Harford County Public Schools