School committee approves "instant recap" meeting summary to post on website

The Marblehead School Committee approved a plan Wednesday to publish brief, post-meeting summaries to the district website using a standardized template rather than sending broad email blasts.

The nut graf: The template, described by the superintendent and discussed by committee members, is meant to provide a concise summary and links to meeting materials soon after meetings to improve transparency without imposing an ongoing heavy labor burden on staff.

Administration presented a draft template for a short summary intended to appear on the district site soon after meetings. The superintendent said the draft is not intended as minutes but as a high-level overview with links to the full meeting video and materials. Committee members discussed whether the communication should be emailed or posted; the motion that passed specified posting to the website rather than district-wide email distribution.

Members said the summary will include subcommittee updates and links to more detailed documents; staff will route the draft through the communications subcommittee or the superintendent's office for posting. One committee member noted past difficulty getting content for a newsletter and praised the proposed one-page summary as less labor-intensive.

Ending: The committee approved using the template and posting the summaries to the district website after meetings; staff will work out a workflow to produce the summary promptly after each full committee meeting.