Superintendent-Board Member Communication Methods
Methods Pros
Email • Email produced
• Efficient (in most cases
takes less time than
phone calls)
• Preferred method by
many individuals
• Provides documentation
of communication
Phone Call • Provides quick feedback
• Reasonably efficient
• Offers personal touch to
communication
• Provides opportunity for
expanded conversation
• Allows for confidential
conversation
Hard Copy • Easily documented
• Provides opportunity to
include attachments
without scanning
• More formal than
e-mail or phone
communication
Face-to- • Most personal form of
Face communication
Meeting • Established rapport
• Provides venue for
expanded discussion
• Provides greater
opportunity to assess
reaction to items being
communicated
Cons
• Email is a part of public
record
• Some board members might
see it as impersonal
• Can be easily forwarded on to
others (lacks confidentiality)
• Limits opportunity for
expanded conversation
• Can violate open meeting
laws if sent to all board
members simultaneously
• Require respondent’s
availability to establish
communication
• Not as efficient as e-mail,
especially if multiple
individuals are to be
contacted
• Hard to document content of
conversation
• Time consuming to develop
and distribute
• Reproduced easily (lacks
confidentiality)
• Most inefficient method of
communication, very time
consuming
• Can be difficult with
detractors
• Hard to document content
of message
Strategies
• Use as a method to communicate
non-confidential information
• Ask the school district’s attorney for
the confidentiality statement to place
as a permanent footer on all outgoing
e-mail messages
• In initial individual meetings with
each board member determine their
preferred communication method
• Can be used as periodic, scheduled
communication strategy
• Establish preferred contact times with
individuals and record for future use
• Establish call log to confirm when
conversations take place
• Lends itself well to normal
communication strategy (i.e. Friday
update of the week’s activities for the
board)
• Provide cover sheet with hardcopy
communication indication that some
material may be confidential
• Most effective when established as
a communication method early in
the superintendent’s tenure
• Best way to establish “equal time”
standard, especially when meetings
are conducted with each board
member prior to board meeting to
review agenda
• In situations where important or
difficult information is discussed,
produce a summary of issues
addressed and e-mail to individual
as a way to document
conversations
• If, through expanded conversation,
important issues are discussed or
ideas generated, make sure to send
an e-mail to other board members
as a follow up to keep everyone in
the loop