Our Tuesday editorial suggested a string of moves local school boards could make to restore trust amid the expanding corruption probe, and to avoid problems in the future (even if your board is untouched by allegations). All the ideas involved greater public access to district dealings, with emphasis on the power of the Internet: Post information – lots of it – on the district Web site for public scrutiny.

Crestwood School Board member Gene Mancini sent me an e-mail on another topic, and, as an aside, mentioned the editorial. He noted that Crestwood’s site has extensive document access and even video of meetings.

Crestwood has been one of the more progressive local districts in providing content on its Web site. It could do better, but the district is proactive in using the Internet for public disclosure. Others that have been ahead of the curve in site development over the years include Hazleton Area, Dallas and Lake-Lehman.

The least useful site in Luzerne County remains Wyoming Valley West, despite efforts to upgrade this year. It is improving, but continues to offer too many dead ends. Of 23 links listed on the sides of the home page, 11 connect to nothing.

In fairness, most districts have ramped up their Web appearance recently. Even Wilkes-Barre Area’s site -- for years offering little more than a list of schools and the suggestion to call the administration office for more information – has entered the new millennium this year with a pumped-up cyber presence.

Harrisburg has helped this process by providing more money for technology and by mandating more district business with the state be done online.

Pressure from public works

State prodding helps, but the surest way to convince districts of the value of online access for all is pressure from voters and taxpayers. We need to tell school boards and administrators that it is in their best interest to post copious amounts of information online. Facts online can prevent rumors and reduce the workload for administrators who must reply to information requests.

As a public service, here are addresses for Luzerne County’s 11 districts:

• Crestwood: http://csdcomets.org

• Dallas: http://www.dallassd.com/

• Greater Nanticoke Area: http://www.gnasd.com/

• Hanover Area: http://www.hanoverarea.org/

• Hazleton Area: http://www.hasd.k12.pa.us

• Lake-Lehman: http://www.lake-lehman.k12.pa.us/

• Northwest Area: http://www.northwest.k12.pa.us/

• Pittston Area: http://www.pittstonarea.com/

• Wilkes-Barre Area: http://www.wbasd.k12.pa.us/i

• Wyoming Area: http://www.wyomingarea.org/

• Wyoming Valley West: http://www.wvwspartans.org/

Visit often. See how hard or easy it is to find something you want or something useful you didn’t know.

Visit sites other than the one set up by your own district. See which ones seem designed with ease of use in mind, and which seem clunky and labyrinthine.

Then start pestering your school board to improve its site. Push for more data and documents to be posted, more contact information, more of everything. The Web lets taxpayers and residents lift the veil that too often shrouds school district business. And corruption breeds best in the dark.

About the Author

Mark Guydish covers education for the Times Leader. Reach him at (570) 970-7161 or mguydish@timesleader.com.

A West Hazleton native, I worked as a service technician repairing electronic mailing and shipping systems, a bike shop owner and an Emergency Medical Technician (among other jobs) before landing a reporter job at the Times Leader Hazleton Bureau in 1995. I started by covering primarily politics in Hazleton City and outlying municipalities, eventually became "social issues" team leader in the Wilkes-Barre office with the accent on education, and headed the Hazleton Bureau for a spell before returning to full-time reporting, my preferred position. I'm an avid cyclist and rode across the country in 1990, a trip of more than 5,000 miles from New Jersey to Seattle and down the coast to San Francisco. Years in the Boy Scouts made me a life long backpacker and camper, and I've yet to find a better way to enjoy the quiet lure of winter snow than cross country skiing.

Mark also writes a regular blog for timesleader.com.

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