Minutes 092722 Workshop Final.pdf

Administrators present:

President Richardson called the Tuesday, September 27, 2022 Workshop meeting to order at 6:23 p.m. at District Office, 119 South Avenue, Webster, in the 2nd floor Professional Development Center. There was a quorum. Prior to the workshop a new employee reception was held in the Spry Cafetorium. J. Birdsong-Ng motioned, C. Roods seconded, to call the workshop meeting to order. Vote: 7: Yes; 0: No. Erin Land, Assistant Superintendent for Instruction, introduced the communications team and highlighted the many forms of public relations/communications that are shared with the community and families to keep everyone informed, highlighting the great things our district accomplishes throughout the year. ParentSquare Joe Montemaro, Director of Educational Technology and Information, discussed the “why” and transition to the district’s new school-to-home communication platform, ParentSquare. Feedback was received from parents, staff, and students regarding concerns about using multiple communications systems and the confusion about where and how to consistently find needed information. ParentSquare enables the district to provide unified equitable communications by using one central tool that includes language translation features and secure communications. Some of the features of this new platform include: parent/teacher conference sign-up, mass notifications/alerts, forms, permission slips, and calendars. Best practices were shared to tell our district’s story, make content easy to absorb, the cadence thereof, and to adjust accordingly. Aspects of communication tools via social media, website, and ParentSquare/Infinite Campus/email were compared. Training will be ongoing and we are considering this year “0”. Asynchronous training opportunities will continue with teachers, administrators, and coaches. Patience is appreciated as the district navigates utilizing this new platform. There was a demonstration of a parent/teacher conference sign-up within ParentSquare. Questions were entertained throughout the presentation. Information was distributed to parents when Chromebooks were picked up this summer. Max Stossel will be presenting “Social Media and Your Kids” on October 4, 2022 at 7:00 p.m., at Webster Schroeder High School. C. Roods motioned, C. Barnabas seconded to adjourn the meeting. The meeting adjourned at 7:13 p.m. Vote: 7: Yes; 0: No. Respectfully yours,