District Moves on Blogosphere

— The School District’s Communications Department is building a blogging network intended primarily to encourage parents to share what’s happening at their children’s schools.

At A Glance

Blogging Network

Parents interested in joining the School District’s blogging network should contact Jordan Godfrey, the district’s assistant communications director, via email at [email protected].

Source: Staff Report

Jordan Godfrey, the district’s assistant communications director, said the project likely will launch either later this month or with the beginning of spring semester next month.

So far, 18 people representing 10 schools have agreed to participate. The bloggers’ commitment is minimal, Godfrey said.

“It’s not going to be a huge thing for them,” she said. “They’re just going to write once or twice per semester.”

The district’s goal is to get at least one parent from each school to blog. Various classroom and extracurricular activities probably will be the bloggers’ main focus.

“The district is such a large community,” Godfrey said. “We have so many kids and parents involved. This helps make the community smaller.”

Rick Schaeffer, the district’s communications director, mentioned the idea of the blogging network during the School Board’s meeting in October.

“When good news comes from our office it is generally well received,” Schaeffer wrote in a document prepared for that meeting. “However, when the good news comes from parents, it is even more effective. To our knowledge, no district in our area has such a network.”

Bloggers will not be paid for their work, Godfrey said. The district won’t exercise any censorship over them unless their language is inappropriate.

“I’m not giving them any direction on what they want to say, that’s up to them,” Godfrey said.

She added, however, the parents who have signed up have done so because they’re excited to talk about what’s happening in the schools, not to use it as a forum to criticize the district.

“We do expect it to be all positive,” she said.

So far, the district has bloggers from Lee, Smith, Sonora, Turnbow, Walker and Young elementary schools; Sonora and Kelly middle schools; Central Junior High and Springdale High.

Keli Gill, a staff member and parent at Sonora Elementary, is among those who signed up to blog. She said parents are among the most knowledgeable about what’s happening in schools.

“The kids are coming home and telling the parents about what’s happening,” Gill said. “The parents are the ones having the interaction with the administrators at those schools and a lot of times it’s the parents volunteering.”

Blog posts likely will be posted on a WordPress website, Godfrey said. The district will provide links to posts through Twitter and Facebook.

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