It would be nice, but it is not true. April is a fresh breath. Teachers and the community are given 3 minutes (2 if there are more than 7 people on a topic) at board meetings. There is NO response from the board or district administration. It is not even put on official record, unless you write the board and ask for “audience” comments.

I have not had to moderate or remove a posting.

The discussion is frank and often leaves me muttering “brilliant!”.

We have been able to unite against a scheduling change being forced upon us under the quise of “The Class Size Ammendment”.

We have been turning over rocks.

Our “union” has been shown to be unable and maybe even unwilling to represent our interest. We are begging for an opportunity to change “unions”. We’re talking Teamsters and hoping they’re listening.

Progress is slow in matters like these but our School Board, Superintendent, and parents are seeing outraged teachers making valid points in under 3 minutes. The blogs provide a great avenue for everyone involved. We provide links to other bloggers and more ideas.

We are NOT rolling over. Stay tuned.

I’m excited to see so many current/prospective board members and school officials blogging. A conversational website has the potential to be an incredibly effective communication tool. Most of us would agree that communication is a major issue in public education and, in general, public service. By setting up and maintaining these sites, our officials not only communicate better but also subject themselves to the accountability that the public deserves.

I like April’s common sense approach to regulating comments. Everyone gets their fair share of negative comments, but it’s easy to regulate. Personally, I delete comments with profanity or baseless ad hominem attacks – everything related to the issues is fair game.

We also have Sunshine/Open Meetings Laws in New York: http://www.dos.state.ny.us/coog/openlaw.html . Here, we are also required to make available communication – that link sums it up well. I do not see information on blogs as a violation of these laws; as long as our sites are accessible in the public domain, we’re actually inviting the brightest rays of sunshine.

I am such an advocate for the use of blogs because I recognize that many interested parents/community members just can’t get to meetings for any of a number of reasons. The more of the public process that we can make available, the better. I am not suggesting that there aren’t any problems with this type of openness, just that is is a refreshing, appropriate method of communication and that the positives far outweigh the benefits.

I have added both of your sites to Google reader and look forward to following April’s service and Fred’s campaign. I think you’ve both got the right idea in terms of communication – hopefully this is a trend that will catch on.

Matthew

I’ve declared my candidacy for the Hillsborough County School Board, District 3. (Not April’s District.)

I’ve also set up a blog. I’m not taking comments yet, but will be in the fall, when I expect to be campaigning much more. The blog will also detail my views on why I’m the right choice for the Board.

My site is at http://burnsfortheboard.blogspot.com/.

I agree that blogging is a wonderful, free communication tool. I want the blog to be a sounding board for the public.

I don’t limit posters comments if they follow my two simple rules because I want the blog to be productive. I also allow anonymous posts so people feel free to ‘call it like they see it’.

I do, however moderate comments before they are posted in order to make sure the blog doesn’t disintegrate into a name calling battle between posters, as often happens.

In regard to my comments on the blog. Elected officials in Florida are constrained by a law called the “sunshine law”. Board members are only allowed to communicate in publicly noticed meetings. For this the reason I will not be discussing my view on agenda items that come before the board for a vote.

Thank you for writing this article.

See you in cyberspace, April

E.C. Huey
Greensboro, NC

What I don’t like is the institutionalization of academic blogs. Because most educators are so behind the curve when it comes to this, entire school systems are being sold very expensive content-management-systems.

Every class, every semester/quarter should be publishing a group blog detailing their learning goals, process, and results.