My superintendent wants a blog

It's actually a great idea - I wish I'd thought of it first. It came about as we were looking for a way to easily solicit public input on our strategic planning documents (a blog is an obvious choice, with each piece of the document posted separately), but it occurred to me that this was a great way to increase communications with the public.

Even a weekly State of the District post would be good PR for us, as we strive to increase transparency and keep in touch with the community. Going further, the blog would be a great way for our curriculum specialist to post notes about grants and new programs or for me to keep the public up to date on changes in technology.

We just rolled out an automated calling system...What better way to let people know how it will work? Opening up the student information system to students and parents? Put it on the blog.

As one of our selectmen noted to me last night, virtually every segment of the community now expects to be able to turn to the Internet for information. A significant web presence is hardly an option and tools like blogs and wikis help build content quickly and easily, opening up the site to people without any programming skill or experience.

Blogs aren't just for ZDNet, geeky kids, or Barack Obama. If anything, Obama showed us the power of frequent, interactive, prominent web postings. Does your superintendent have a blog yet?