Super Hosts Media Talk-Back
Schools Superintendent Mark Porter hosted a luncheon at the Doubletree Grand Key Wednesday, asking local electronic and print media professionals covering the education beat how the school district could make their jobs easier.
The first suggestion pertained to accessing the district’s public records, and area Porter readily admitted needs improvement. “We have a problem handling records,” he said bluntly, adding he thought it was “less obstruction (than) that we just can’t find them.”
The district’s information system is so outdated that “data is run via a green screen.” (That seems distressingly closely related to technology this reporter used in the early 1990s.) The system makes data entry very easy but retrieval difficult, Porter said. “We’ve gotten pretty defensive. It shouldn’t take five days – just because it can take five days, it shouldn’t.” He said he expected “a decision within six months to replace that system.”
In the meantime, it was suggested that, since certain personnel records were by law public knowledge, the information simply be posted on the district’s website. Porter anticipated some opposition from personnel but conceded it might be more effective “to just put it out there.”
He also anticipates “a half-time for half-a-year” public information officer that would “fit in the budget.” Meanwhile, Administrative Aide Sally Abrams Smith, who is in charge of district news releases, is the appropriate liaison. Regarding the releases, “we’re more effective with positive news than negative news,” Porter said. The Key West Police were held up by some as an example of a department that released bad news along with good. The superintendent said he’d try to be more proactive than reactive.
Also mentioned, among the dozen or more constructive suggestions offered for Porter’s consideration, were conference calls to discuss board agendas in advance, a revamp of the phone system, a roster of district employees’ names and business phone extensions available on the website, refreshing web pages and a periodic “From the Desk of Mark Porter” newspaper column. That had originally been intended, he said, and “needs to be put up a little higher on my priorities.”
Porter also distributed business cards including his cell phone number.
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