The Mason County School District now has living calendars for each building which give parents and community members easier access to what is happening in the district.
Mason County Assistant Superintendent Justin Moore said he discovered the need for the calendars while serving as principal at Mason County Middle School.
“We realized there was a communication problem,” he said. “Parents are given a lot of information and documents during the school year, but not all of that information gets to them. When you send flyers home with the kids, you’re just taking a chance that they’ll give the flyer to their parents, so we thought we would try having a living calendar that showed everything happening during the school year. This year, we’re trying it at all of the schools.”
Moore said the calendar was originally going to be on the district website, but it was discovered that by doing it through a Google document, it made it easier for staff to post to the calendar and for parents to gain access.
“Information is immediately available,” he said. If you’re on the document and I’m posting something, you can watch me typing. It appears that fast.”
The calendars will list every event and meeting throughout the school year, according to Moore.
“There’s so much happening in our district that it’s amazing we even know what all is going on,” he said. “From a parent standpoint, it was sometimes hard to track down that information. Now, it will be available in one document.”
According to Moore, some of the calendars have frequently asked questions listed for parents.
On the Mason County High School calendar, parents can find answers regarding sports physicals, the drug testing program, Chromebooks, enrollment, transcript information, attendance and other topics.
In order to find the calendars, parents or community members can visit the district website at masoncoschools.com and click the arrow next to school calenders. The individual calendars will be listed. Clicking on the calendars will open a Google document.
“Not all of the school calendars are full yet,” Moore said. “Some are still working on getting them finished, but the information will be there for everyone to see.”
Moore said he hopes to see the calendars used by everyone.
“There’s always stuff you miss, but hopefully this will help us communicate all the positive things happening in our district,” he said. “Worst case scenario is that it improves our communication in the district.”
