WINDHAM SOUTHEAST SCHOOL DISTRICT
COMMUNICATIONS COUNCIL
May 12, 2023
DRAFT MINUTES
In attendance: Ruby McAdoo, Robin Morgan, Michelle Green
I. Call to Order / Introductions / Recognition of Visitors
The meeting was called to order at 9:33
II. Establish chair, clerk & minutes expectations
Ruby was appointed as chair. Clerk duties will rotate between Ruby and Robin and minutes should be published within 5 days of the meeting.
III. Re-establish mission:
Mission: Increase public engagement with the board’s work through effective communications.
The council agreed that this mission is still accurate. There was a discussion about whether to solicit more community members for this council.
IV. Social Media presence:
Ruby will continue making facebook posts on behalf of the Communications Council/Board. The council agreed that she should start including a brief summary of what will be discussed when posting board meeting agendas.
The council agreed that she should also start posting minutes and summary of the minutes with a link to the BCTV video. Robin as board clerk can create the executive summary of the minutes. Ruby will share the initial minutes/video post to all the town pages with an invitation to follow the page to be apprised of future minutes.
There was a discussion about the best way to get this info to post on the school pages. The council created a google form to send to school administrators about how best to share board meeting information for inclusion on the school-based pages.
Ruby will continue to make weekly posts with upcoming committee and leadership council meetings and those will be posted solely to the WSESD Board page. Quarterly she will make a post directing people to the agendas page on the WSESU website.
V. Communications for district: discuss possible recommendation for district to have a communications council
The council agreed that they don’t know if a council or coordinator is needed. These are some communications needs for the district community that were identified:
● A continuously updated district wide calendar
● Online school-based and district-wide calendars of events that are kept up to date.
● More communication to families about district-wide events
● Maintaining the email list that was created for disseminating board meeting information – invite people annually to join the mailing lists or leave the mailing lists.
● The website should list standing meeting times for all leadership councils and committees.
● Possible creation of a social media page for the district?
Ruby will ask Mark if he can attend the next meeting to discuss the additional communication needs identified in the above discussion.
VI. District Calendar: discuss recommendations for clarity
Once the last day of school is determined, it would be very helpful to have a communication that lists the final day of school for each grade at every school distributed to all supervisory union parents as early as possible. We also recommend that if the website is going to offer school-based calendars that they be updated frequently with school-based events. Robin will send an email to Mark suggesting this.
VII. Set future meetings date & cycle of meetings
We will work with Mark to select a date to meet over the summer.
VIII. The meeting adjourned at 12:20.
Minutes submitted by Robin Morgan
