LET'S TALK HITS A RESPONSE SLOWDOWN IN MARCH

Let's Talk, the school district's direct online communications program that allows residents to target specific questions to the district and expect responses within two days, hit a slowdown in March, according to an update to be presented Monday.

Suzanne Turner, district director of strategic communications, wrote in her one-page update that the district received 149 inquiries, or "dialogues," in March, with an average first reply time of 58 hours.

This marks a slowdown from the average response time of 31 hours during the previous eight months, the report states. See the report HERE.

Turner stated it was due to "a heavy volume of email and phone inquiries about several hot topics, and some technical difficulties."

Let's Talk, which was instituted in 2015 at a cost of $19,000 per year, seeks a response time of 48 hours or less.

In addition, the top inquiry, with 17 "dialogues," for March was related to the proposed reduction in elementary world language classes under the proposed 2017-2018 school district budget, which will also be reviewed Monday.

Turner's report states: "We were not able to respond to all dialogues within the goal of 2 days in March, due to the large volume of dialogues, a heavy volume of email and phone inquiries about several hot topics, and some technical difficulties. We are back on track for April."

It will be discussed at Monday's school board meeting set for 7:30 p.m. in the Columbia High School library. See the full agenda HERE.