Information about School Board meetings can now be accessed quickly and efficiently through BoardDocs

May 10, 2006 - Starting with the May 10th Board meeting, The Renton School District will use an Internet-based system to publish school board agenda items and support documents.

Information about School Board meetings can now be accessed quickly and efficiently through BoardDocs. The new system will enhance governance and provide a basis for better communication with the community by replacing the old paper distribution method of providing board meeting agendas and other important supporting documents with electronic distribution. Making this information available on the Internet allows a public access to information board members use to make decisions right on our Web site.

Through our web site, the public can view the agenda and other supporting documents associated with school board meetings. This allows interested parties to review and print the information prior to meetings. After the meeting, individuals can review agenda items and see what actions were taken by the board complete with voting record. All documents associated with the meeting are automatically archived and can be accessed online by meeting date or by using the comprehensive search feature.

By increasing the time board members have to review information, the new eGovernance initiative also enables board members to better prepare for their meetings and become better informed decision makers. Under the paper-based system, the meeting packet could not be distributed until every document was prepared and submitted. Once all the documents were collected, the staff would spend days assembling them into packets and distributed the information to board members. The new system allows documents to be published to an online agenda as they become available extending the time board members have access to information. Board members will also have access to a vast database of best practices from other districts to gain knowledge of initiatives other boards have considered and implemented. In the future, this technology will also be used to manage and publish Board policies online.
As a district, we are committed to sharing information on a timely basis with our community. An online distribution system of this type addresses this need while requiring fewer resources.
BoardDocs can be accessed at http://www.boarddocs.com/wa/rpswa/Board.nsf/Public?OpenFrameSet.