District 99 Aims to Improve Community Outreach with New Open House Events

The  Board of Education will consider holding three open house events this year as a way to improve community outreach and engagement.

During the district's Aug. 20 school board meeting, Superintendent Mark McDonald and Communications Director Jill Browning presented a proposal for three combined "Recognition and District 99 Open House" events that would allow the public to interact with the board and administration.

On three nights during the 2012-12 school year—Nov. 12, March 4 and May 13—the board would hold a special meeting at 6:30 p.m. that would include a student recognition ceremony followed by the opportunity to socialize informally with District 99 officials. Community members would also be able to visit different booths, such as "facilities" or "student learning," to learn about different aspects of the district. 

McDonald said the format would replace "Bagels with the Board," a poorly-attended, two-hour event held on seven Saturdays during the school year.

"Our goal is to try to create a forum to allow the board to interact with the public in a different way than we normally do," McDonald said. "This was based in part on our findings from our communications survey that suggested to us that while some community members viewed Bagels with the Board as an opportunity to meet with the board on an informal basis, the support for that activity was relatively low ... So we began thinking about other opportunities that we might create."

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