Comments From The Rock Hill School Board Retreat

Pictures of Camp Canaan Adventures

The Rock Hill School Board held a retreat at Camp Canaan on Tuesday, November 30, 2010.  The first order of business was a discussion about Camp Canaan. A lot of board members were not aware of the camp. Click here to go to their web site.  For parents, they will be running camps during the Christmas Holidays. For those who don't know, the camp is located on Sand Island in the Catawba River below the Lake Wylie dam. They are interested in working with school and church groups.


As for the retreat, Shawn Cetrone, with the Rock Hill Herald, covered the event in Wednesday's paper which you can read by clicking here.  This was a good opportunity for the "new" board to get together and discuss issues that are not a part of a normal board meeting. Such as, what is a board member, and what you wished you had known before becoming a board member.


The end of the session was devoted to communications and blogging. Several board members had expressed a desire to start blogging but didn't want to offend the rest of the board and/or the superintendent. I have previously posted about some toe stepping that I have done with my blog - and that is a concern by all board members.  The first comment to The Herald's article voiced a concern:

There are several problems with individual school board members blogging as individuals representing the school board. This is a board, that meets to discuss issues and votes to approve many things as a group, not as individuals. information posted on the internet should be approved by the board. The minutes of the meetings could be and should be made available on the internet. However, if one member blogs their individual comments/ideas, the public, school employees and students could interpret those ideas to be the consensus of the board. Also, there are no peer review (i.e., board members) of blogs. Comments could be based on or include false information or could be misinterpreted from the original meaning due to the wording, causing much distress. And yes, doing it the right way would take additional time (for the board members and staff) and money.

Read more: http://www.heraldonline.com/2010/12/01/2653543/should-school-board-members-be.html#ixzz16rYfYFSs


I followed up the above posting with one of my own - go to my site and give me some feedback....and help me with answers to these board responsibilities:

• What is the best way to communicate being an advocate for children and public schools?
• What is the best way to communicate to the most people?
• What is the best way to respond to community needs?
• What is the best way to communicate effectively?
• What is the best way to stay informed?

This debate is going on all across the country - and the world. Check out these articles before responding:

Communications

Wired-World Mishaps

The Power of Connections

What's in a Blog

To Blog or not to Blog

The Benefits of Going Direct

Blog Do's and Don'ts

Thanks.

Jim