District 308 high school course catalogs; board meetings go “green”
December 1, 2008
Green and red may be the familiar colors of the upcoming holiday season, but District 308 has been focusing on “green” cost-saving measures to keep schools out of the “red” all year long.
The district’s latest initiative in going green will be a welcome change in a district that produced approximately 44 million paper copies last year. The district’s annual High School Course Catalogue will be available exclusively online, reducing the 6,500 copies of the 100-page catalogue distributed last year, to a mere 250 copies this year.
Beyond the savings in the time and cost of producing the publication, the district will be showing students how to be good stewards of the Earth.
Although the catalogue has been posted online for the past six years, this is the first year that paper copies will not be distributed. The catalogue can be accessed by going to the district Web site at www.oswego308.org and clicking the “Teaching and Learning” and “Secondary” tabs. The catalogue is also available on the Oswego and Oswego East High Schools’ Web sites.
From December through January students in grades 8 through 11 use the catalogue to select the courses they are interested in taking the following year. High school counselors then meet with each student to review the selections and, if necessary, make revisions to ensure students successfully plan their high school careers according to their future goals. In the spring, administration compiles the information and finalizes what courses will be offered the following school year, so they can begin the process of appropriately staffing the classes.
Online course catalogues are just one of the many ways District 308 has been working to reduce savings and paper waste. Earlier this year the District 308 Board of Education stopped producing paper copies of board meeting packets. The agendas and all back up materials are now available online through the following link: http://www.boarddocs.com/il/oswego308/Board.nsf
The new electronic system, called BoardDocs, offers many features that allow the district to become more open and transparent with the public and provide for greater accountability. In addition, going paperless reduces paper waste and the district's carbon footprint (packets will no longer be driven throughout the community for delivery) while saving money and time. Each board member uses a laptop at the meeting to view the agenda and easily access all back-up materials. The public is also able to view the agenda and presentation materials on large projection screens.
BoardDocs produces instant Board meeting minutes. The system also has a helpful search feature that allows an individual to easily research a topic from past meetings at which the BoardDocs system was used. The system will search the past meetings and list any meetings at which a specific keyword was recorded. Then individuals can click on the meeting and agenda item they would like to review and hear a voice recording of that portion of the meeting.