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Weathering the storm: Sometimes blogging can help
By Superintendent Dr. Donald Owen
Urbana District 116
I never thought that I would be writing a column
about a blog for any publication. I am not a frequent
blogger, and I would argue that a blog is pretty low on
the list of tools a superintendent should use to
communicate with families, community members and
stakeholders. That being said, I did learn a valuable
lesson about the power of a blog recently.
I waded into online journaling slowly and with
much trepidation. When I started my blog, “A View
from Here,”
a
little more than a year ago, I did it for very personal
reasons. I used the blog as a way to overcome
writer’s block while writing my dissertation. It worked.
In the back of my mind, I was thinking that my posts
might be useful for
people who were
interested
in
education. I wrote
posts
about
whatever education
issue was on my
mind at the moment
from Race to the
Top, to mentoring,
to the new Illinois
Report Card.
I tweeted my
posts to followers
and
occasionally
received a re-tweet,
comment, or email
response. My most
“popular” post was
about Race to the
Top, and it received
about 180 page
views over the course of two months.
That all changed when the Winter of 2014 hit full
force in January. My mentor and predecessor told me
that calling “snow days” were no-win decisions, and
he was right.
Despite the fact that every school district in
Champaign County cancelled student attendance on
January 6, 2014, I received dozens of questions,
calls, and complaints from parents and community
members. On the evening of January 22, after
consulting with several other superintendents and
local emergency management
officials, I made the decision to
close school on January 23 due to
a forecast of -25˚F to -30˚F wind
chill. I sent out a voice/email/text
blast to all families.
I immediately received an
email from a parent who did not
agree with my decision. The gist of the parent’s
email was that I was not very bright, and this decision
called for a detailed explanation. I carefully crafted a
reply that explained my rationale for closing school,
and provided insight into my personal thought
process and the steps in the decision process. I used
that email as the basis for a blog post that I posted
that same night. I titled the post, “Why are you
closing
school?!”
which
paraphrased a line from the
parent’s email.
The
challenge
that
superintendents and school
leaders have is how to find the
right communication method to
reach the most stakeholders.
There is not one correct answer
to this challenge. In fact, the
best communication method
depends on a wide variety of
variables. For this particular
issue, in this particular context,
my blog worked better than I
could have hoped. My blog
post generated over 20,000
page views and led to
discussions in newspaper,
radio, and television news
programs. Now when I talk to
parents
and
community
members about winter weather, I get a lot more
empathy and support about closing school due to
weather than I ever thought possible.
The lesson I learned from this experience is that
for some issues, especially those which are time
sensitive and apply to a large audience, a blog may
be the best method of communication. While I don’t
plan to become a true blogger, who posts all of the
time, I am now more open to exploring ways of
incorporating my blog and other forms of social
media into my personal communication plan.
Outreach
Dr. Donald Owen attended
Minneapolis Public
Schools; earned his BA in
psychology and education
from Carleton College, and
an MA in history from
Illinois State University. He
completed his MEd and
EdD in Educational
Organization and
Leadership from the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He
has worked for Urbana School District #116 since
1990. He taught 8
th
Grade U.S. History for 12
years before moving to the district office to lead
staff development and grant programs. He
served as Assistant Superintendent for
Curriculum and Instruction from 2007 -
2013. This is his first year as Superintendent.
