Monday, October 12, 2009

Parking Fees & Facebook activism

Author:
I read an WP article this morning about the dramatically increased parking fees:

Schools' Parking Fee Dents Loudoun Teens' Lifestyles

Parents are protesting:
"Maybe next year there will be a fee to sit in a chair at lunch, because that's a privilege, too," said Russ Borman, father of a Briar Woods High School senior. "It just goes against what we would think is a normal and fair practice."
Students are protesting:
Daniel Hopkins, a student at Stone Bridge High School in Ashburn, and his friend Kelly Griffith, a student at Park View High School in Sterling, started a protest group on Facebook months ago that attracted 265 sympathizers
LCPS is responding:
"The big yellow school buses are always available," said Heritage High principal Margaret Huckaby.
And yet nothing much has changed:
...they caved the first week of class. They said they weren't willing to give up the thrill of driving to school, even if it ate up an entire paycheck from Target, where both work part time at the Starbucks counter.

Borman bought his daughter, Kerry, a permit before classes started so she can drive herself to work two days a week.

Despite months of protests on Facebook, no Loudoun high schools has reported significantly fewer parkers, although several carpool groups share passes. There also hasn't been a surge in upperclassmen riding the bus, schools spokesman Wayde B. Byard said.
You know, I'll bet I'm the only School Board member with a Facebook account? And I had no idea there were facebook protest groups. Facebook isn't even accessible through the LCPS website.

This leads me to two points:
  1. If I didn't know there were Facebook protests, and I'm the only person among Board members and in senior administration with a Facebook account, it is clear that in this case anyway (and I suspect in many others) Facebook protest groups are meaningless. I ignore invitations to join them as a rule, and I suspect that many times they make people feel as if they have contributed their voice to an important issue, when in fact they have not.
  2. LCPS employees need to have access to Facebook and other social media sites online. It's part of encouraging communication with students and constituents, and finding out what is going on in the community.

8 comments:

  1.   When times are so tight they demand students pay such controversial fees, the first thing LCPS needs to do is figure out ways to RAISE productivity so they can perform equal levels of service with fewer bodies. Opening up Facebook to all employees would have the opposite effect.
     John, your constant harping on opening all these social media sites up to everyone really raises doubts about your ability to hold the school system accountable in getting maximum services for minimum tax dollars. Either you've never been responsible for the Profit and Loss of a company, or you're running for re-election. Virtually no one who has been accountable for the bottom line would ever agree with such a suggestion regarding social media...
    ReplyDelete
  2. John - does that mean that if people don't know about your blog - that it is meaningless as well?

    I would think that our school board would be focusing on the highest priority issues at this time, like the budget, getting schools built close to the students, etc. instead of worrying about getting Facebook and other social media site accounts.
    ReplyDelete
  3. I agree about Facebook, did you know Fairfax has a page? http://www.facebook.com/fcpsva?ref=nf

    - Liz
    ReplyDelete
  4. Ah, but you forget about the power of RSS-based syndication...set up right, a Facebook group's updates and info can be syndicated (i.e. automatically copied) out to all other social media platforms and websites that are similarly "connected"...hardly meaningless. It's called "Social Media Marketing".
    ReplyDelete
  5. Seems to me that John is very arrogant because "he" has never heard of these protests, they then must be meaningless.

    Stop pushing the social media crap and start working on the real issues facing the school system!
    ReplyDelete
  6. As a Facebook member, I have friends who are high school students, teachers and other parents. Our elementary school has a group page as does our HOA. It is an easy way to communicate and the only piece missing is the administration of our individual schools and the administrators of LCPS.

    But it can be used as a learning tool also. Here's a link to a blog, SpeEdChange, that describes a learning experience that took place using social media: http://speedchange.blogspot.com/2009/10/spacefish-and-primary-crowdsource.html

    Showing students how to use social media to find information and continue their learning can be a worthwhile activity.
    ReplyDelete
  7. Mr. Byard said that students are carpooling to school. According to the parking permit that my daughter and I signed this is illegal. The permits are only to be used by one student. I don't understand why- you would think that LCPS would encourage carpooling. Also the students can only have 1 passenger until they turn 18.
    ReplyDelete
  8. Supply and demand. Obviously the price is still too low since there was not a reduction in demand for permits. If this was a business the owner would maximize revenue (and minimize costs) by continuing to raise permit prices until one saw a drop in demand. I say raise the permits to $100 per month next year.
    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)