Archive: Around Town

Mark S. Lewis One of the biggest issues facing all public school districts in the age of technology is how best to ensure that those within the community served by the district are aware of the educational issues confronting the district and their impact on students, staff, families, and the community at large. It is important that school officials utilize all available mechanisms to engage the public around matters of extreme importance. Those matters include state and federal mandates and their effects on the schools, curricular changes to ensure the academic success of the Twenty-first Century learner, school finance and taxation issues, school safety, and other matters of specific local concern and interest.

For these reasons (and more) I have graciously accepted Lansing Star’s invitation to write a regular column within which I will endeavor to address the questions and concerns of the Lansing community regarding its schools. I invite readers to submit topics to the Lansing Star at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Submissions will be reviewed and those seemingly of greatest general interest and/or importance will be addressed.

Being that the goal of this initiative is to enhance effective communication between school and community, the subject of communication is a most fitting first topic. In recent days, the district has fielded concerns and complaints regarding the effectiveness of its communication with the public. Granted, district and building newsletters are crucial communication elements. However, the advent of computer technology has opened up a far broader array of mechanisms to exchange information between school and community, with e-mail serving as a key device. With e-mail access to school officials increasingly becoming the communication mechanism of choice for the public, school officials have been forced to respond by altering their daily schedules. Increasingly larger chunks of time during the day must now be spent in front of a keyboard replying to the public’s inquiries.

Here’s one example of how the use of e-mail has grown: During my seven years as superintendent in a 3,800-student school district downstate, I received in excess of 24,000 e-mail messages. This may seem an astronomical figure. However, compare that number to the 9,400 e-mail messages that I have received since commencing my service to Lansing on January 4, 2006, and it’s easy to see that at the current rate, the 24,000 figure will be eclipsed in short order. No doubt many studies will be written in the future regarding the impact of e-mail on school leadership.

There are perhaps other, equally effective, means of utilizing technology to enhance school / community interaction. Unfortunately, the Lansing Central School District does not have access to its own cable feed. If it did, countless programs could be produced and transmitted to the community on an around-the-clock basis. In addition, installing streaming video capacity on the district’s website would enable those same programs to be accessed by the public at its convenience. A number of districts currently have this capability. We need to consider it as a component of a comprehensive technology plan in the months to come. In addition to serving as an effective communications mechanism, it could also serve as the basis for development of a video production curriculum for our students.

Effective two-way communication is a priority for both the board of education and administration of your school district. We will explore the most effective mechanisms to achieve that goal on an ongoing basis. It is anticipated that this regular column will contribute to that effectiveness. Let us know if you agree.

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