How much school email is too much school email?
September 13, 2010
I am looking for feedback on the amount of email that we (Saline Area Schools) send out each week? We have numerous loops – district wide groups, building level groups, special groups, parent groups, etc. We seem to use them almost daily. I know that this time of year we send more than the usual amount, but I am trying to get an idea if we need to think about the overall amount we send. (It’s been a couple of months since we sent a Pepsi Refresh email!)
There are two main reasons we use email….. it’s quick and it’s inexpensive. We also benefit from a high percentage of families that have access to email either at work or at home or both. In addition, since we have a large number of email addresses for residents in our community, other groups like to work with us to get information out to district residents. Often this is important information that we feel many people would like to know about what is going on in and around the Saline Area School district.
Any thoughts?
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Scot Graden's Blog 
Sometimes there seems to be a lot of emails, but I welcome all of the information and opportunities from our schools and community.
If the email is related to my child’s schooling, or legitimate district news, I wouldn’t mind getting 50 emails a day. The emails for contests (like the Pepsi Refresh) equate to SPAM in my opinion, and I’d really rather that the district kept to legitimate district information.
I don’t mind the emails at all. The amount of Community Ed flyers/paper that comes home in backpacks though is REALLY excessive. Especially given that I have 3 children in the district and they all get the same flyers. I think a new system for the distribution of that information would be a good thing.
I prefer to have more information than not enough. It has been a lot of email coming in but I do understand that it is the beginning of the year and we are all getting up to speed on new schools, teachers, etc. It would be nice if you could control the topics better. What I mean by that is I am on several loops since I have 2 kids and I receive email about the same things multiple times, maybe some topics should go to district loops so everyone gets it but not multiple times from all the schools??
I was just complaining last night that I wish Saline Middle School would stop robo-calling and start using email. The telephone is a cursed nuisance that interrupts family life. Email is less intrusive and is easy to refer back to if I need to double check a date, time, or requirements list.
There’s a Saline school closings email list that didn’t get used at all last year, and I don’t understand why not. I’d appreciate the convenience of being able to wake up and check my email instead of having to surf around for a closings list on the web, or wait for one on TV.
I welcome the mail; it is a great way to keep up with what is happening. I think the one thing I value the most about where I live is the quality of the public schools (and I can only hope that public education will survive the present toxic political climate without too much damage). I’ll admit the daily messages from the Pepsi thing seemed excessive, but they were easily dismissed (but I did vote every day and we did get the funding for Project Lead the Way; hooray!).
I fully agree with Jason, on both the robo-calling and the school closing emails!
Even if there was just some way to opt out of Raft’s robo-calls, I’d be happy. Seems like something that might be costing the district a lot of money (just guessing, but it can’t be free….).
No, it is not too much. I might be in the minority, but I even appreciated the Pepsi reminders. WE earned that grant. I work in a district that also attempted a Pepsi grant, but was not as organized and did not send out reminders. Saline earned a grant, my district did not! There is no doubt in my mind that it was the daily reminders that earned us the money. I agree the flyers seem to be the bigger problem.
The email is wonderful, as long as you have access.
The handouts for community activities are extremely excessive. Perhaps allowing a once a week newsletter with this information could end the amount of paper that is trashed every night.
Perhaps also a system of “only and oldest” children take home the paper work regardless of school.
We all want to know what’s going on with our kids realtive to school. That would include schedule related topics, school events, etc. Emails on these topics are a great idea. But I really don’t care about Busch’s cards (whatever they are), community ed – spanish classes, knitting instruction, etc, or the 78th version of the parking bible for woodland meadows elementary. (Google Earth will NEVER catch up with the parking configuration at WM!) Some say it’s impossible to over-communicate, but it isn’t. I have proof: I received no less than 34 pieces of paper in my kindergartener’s first day folder. That’s 33 pieces more than my parents recieved back in my day. And back then we used stone tablets.
I prefer more info via email than less. Grouping all the week’s non-urgent announcements into a weekly digest would be nice. If I never get another piece of paper coming home from school that will be okay with me.