Three ways the Joplin R-8 Board can improve community relations

It is ironic that a school district that spends more than most of the other area school districts combined on public relations had to find out at a special Board of Education meeting that it is not communicating with the public.

Unfortunately, some of the ideas that came out of that meeting are the things that will do the least to improve the situation.

Please, please, please do not try to find out what the public wants by conducting a survey. We have had it up to here with surveys, most of which are written in such a manner as to get the answer district officials want.

Public forums were suggested during Monday night's meeting. While those would be far preferable to surveys, it is hard to find times and places that are workable for much of the public and even having several of them would not reach a large segment of the community, especially those who do not have children in the schools.

It was also suggested that more committees be formed with the public included. That is also a nice idea, but far too many times, we have seen such committees limited to people who are not willing to question anything that school administration wants to do.

What the board needs to do, and there is no reason to believe that any of these ideas will ever be considered, is the following:

Expand public comment time during board meetings

At this point, the public can only speak if it registers well in advance, and even then, only if it is about a matter that is on the board agenda.

That immediately limits the board's knowledge of what is going on in the district to whatever the superintendent wants it to know. The public is often interested in other matters, just as important, but feels it has no way to communicate with the board since it has to go through hoops set up by administration to get on the agenda.

Sure, there will be some times when the complaints seem minor, but inviting the public to participate is great public relations and does not cost a cent. It also offers the board the opportunity to find out what the public thinks and perhaps pick up some good ideas. Time limits will still be necessary for speakers, but it can be done in a much more polite fashion than it has been done in the past and without a board president warning each succeeding speaker about the time limit.

Televise the work sessions

 The afternoon work sessions the board holds before the evening meetings have never been televised.

Often, those are the sessions where differences in opinion are aired and the board gets into the mechanics of how things are working in the school district. The Joplin City Council recently discarded this type of meeting in favor of more openness and has combined its work sessions with its regular evening meetings. It has worked well.

The idea of either combining the work session and the regular session or televising the work session was brought up by a board member recently (in a work session, of course), but the board opted not to televise the meetings, because they did not think it was necessary.

Televising the work sessions or combining both sessions (and perhaps dropping some of the public relations presentations and sticking to business) would keep the public more informed and promote an atmosphere of openness. The district has Jet 14 and a YouTube channel. Why not use them?

Get out and talk to the people

If board members really want to know what is going on in the district, they cannot expect to find out by attending monthly board meetings, a few committee sessions, and going to seminars and training sessions.

They need to get out and meet with the public and not just those who happen to own businesses or hang in their social circles. When I was at the Carthage Press, a Carthage High School student conducted a survey and the results ripped the newspaper to shreds. Some of the criticisms were on the mark, some were based on misunderstandings. I met with the student, told her I would make some changes (and I did), corrected the misunderstanding and explained why the Press did some of the things it did.

The fact that I had met with that student and made the changes was great public relations for the Press, but more importantly, it made it a better newspaper. Board members should seek out those who criticize the school district and listen to their concerns.

Instead, the board has actually brought in a motivational speaker, at a cost of $3,000,  who recommended that board members not have dealings with the public. And now they wonder why they are having problems communicating with the public?

Following these steps would certainly make things a bit more unpredictable for the Joplin R-8 Administration, but it would create an openness that could mark the first steps toward restoring faith in a school district that has squandered almost all of the public's good will over the past few years.