(Posted Feb. 20, 2023)
By Linda Dillman, Staff Writer
Jefferson Local Schools’ ability to prepare, edit and produce school board documents could get easier for district staff and community members interested in following board action and agendas.
During the school board’s Feb. 14 meeting, members conducted a video chat presentation with BoardDocs, a software company that works with school districts and other public entities across the nation.
According to the Ohio School Boards Association, of which Jefferson Local is a member, “OSBA has teamed up with BoardDocs to offer board management services that give governing bodies turn-key electronic solutions for processing any type of governance document.
“BoardDocs has helped nearly 4,000 organizations dramatically reduce costs, increase transparency and reduce the time spent producing board packets by up to 75 percent.”
Jefferson Local Superintendent William Mullett said the board plans to discuss the idea of moving to the cloud-based system during their next work session. He said Technology Director Curt Dennis and Treasurer Mark Ingles are spearheading the project.
“The board will give consideration to what (BoardDocs) can do,” Mullett said. “It certainly would save time with all the preparation we do, especially my secretary, in getting the board packets ready for a meeting.
“Generally, the BoardDocs representatives satisfied our questions during their remote presentation. I know many school districts use them. They’re the most popular in that platform, and I think we’ll eventually move in that direction.”
The OSBA reported organizations such as Jefferson Local Schools have the ability to determine which stakeholders—board members, staff and the general public—have access to each document.
“Last-minute revisions are easy, and documents can be distributed in just minutes,” stated the school board association.
Mullett said the initial service expense in contracting with BoardDocs is approximately $6,000 per year, which he felt would more than balance out the cost of manually producing board documents.
