Voting 9-0, the board chose to go beyond the free pilot program after district officials updated the governing body with findings that some 335 people have used the system to reach out with concerns, questions and comments via the web.
The program allows for a streamlined process to direct inquiries to district officials and promises a response within two days. Since the program launched in September, the district reveals the average response time is just 1.1 days.
"I have heard considerable positive feedback regarding Let's Talk," said Board Member Elizabeth Baker.
District Spokesperson Suzanne Turner detailed data from the first few months of the program noting most of those who used it were parents or guardians and the top topic they raised was the recent education summit.
"We went through a period of time when we had a lot of Let's Talk dialogues about Halloween," she said, referring to the objections to Seth Boyden's banning of Halloween parties at the school this year. "Almost none of them were from anyone who lived here. One of them had a conspiracy theory that it was all about a certain subgroup's objections, which it wasn't and they thought we were lying about saying it wasn't."
Board Member Johanna Wright said she did not think the number of participants was enough given that there are nearly 7,000 students in the district and nearly 40,000 residents in Maplewood and South Orange.
"We are not hitting all of the people that we need to hit," Wright said. "Could we do without Let's Talk?"
Apparently not.
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