School Board to Hold Special Communications Meeting

The communications committee of the School Board will hold a special meeting Monday, March 12, to discuss a topic some new board members deem to be of top importance: communication.

Board member and communications committee chairman Joe Finucan said he asked the board to hold a communications forum so that residents would have the opportunity to discuss the ways in which the school district gets information to the public.

“One of the things we ran on was a platform of communications and more communication from the district to the constituents, and really to everyone,” Finucan said. “That’s including to the press and to potential residents. There’s a whole slew of audience types we ought to be taking into account when we put communication pieces together.”

He said he encourages school district residents—especially parents—to attend the meeting and share their thoughts on whether the district is communicating effectively with the public, or what it could do to improve.

School board member Dan Domalik said the meeting is an opportunity for residents to interact directly with the school board and administration.

“We want all residents of KO to feel they have a say in how their tax dollars are spent and how our children are educated,” Domalik said in an email Tuesday. “A school district can't make good decisions in a vacuum. It takes all of us working together in an open environment to achieve excellence.”

Domalik said all comments will be welcome at the meeting, although the board wants to focus on communication topics.

School board and committee meetings are open to the public, and the schedule for these meetings can be found on the calendar on the Keystone Oaks website.

The district utilizes morning email blasts, which provide information about events, school sports, meeting dates and scholarships, as well as student and faculty accomplishments.

The Keystone Oaks School District currently does not use social media websites to relay information to the public, and Finucan and Domalik said they plan for that to be a discussion topic at the meeting.

The communications forum is at 6:30 p.m. on March 12, in the board room where school board meetings are normally held.