Oct. 5 marked the first monthly “Word with Waterman” Zoom held during lunch periods from roughly 11:30 a.m. to noon. These meetings provide information about the LT community at the district and board level with a question-and-answer session at the end, Superintendent Brian Waterman said.

“The point is to connect with our community from the superintendent position,” Waterman said. “[They] really share updates, information, and reminders in a different format than what we’ve done before.”

The idea was originally a monthly video by LTTV when Waterman was principal, Waterman said. They focused on student groups and were uploaded to the YouTube channel–these videos can still be found on the LTTVonline.

“[The videos weren’t] a webinar format, so it wasn’t live or interactive,” Waterman said. “Going into this year [for] my second year as superintendent, [I was] really just trying to come up with ideas on ways that we can share information that’s happening here at LT with our community.”

These webinars are particularly helpful alongside the implementation of LT’s Strategic Plan, Principal Jennifer Tyrrell said. The Strategic Plan, which was implemented last year, consists of about 85 stakeholders and includes five large target data sets and focuses for the next four to five years. There are also smaller goals along the way to ensure the targets are met.

“I think the timing makes sense given our recent adoption of the Strategic Plan,” Tyrrell said. “[We are] communicating the things that we are doing [that] align to the plan, [we are] sharing good news with our community [and] making sure the community is updated on our major areas of focus here at LT. [We can] really just continue [to] open up the lines of communication and share with all of our stakeholders.”

Tyrrell recorded monthly vlogs during her previous position as principal at Carl Sandburg High School and recognizes the importance communication serves in an administrative role, she said. She is considering adding something similar at LT in order to improve communication efforts.

“Communication is always one of our priorities in education,” Tyrrell said. “It’s always an area where we can continue to try new things and continue to get better. It’s important that our community knows our vision and that it’s a collective vision for our school.”

The second Word with Waterman Zoom occurred on Nov. 9, with the third one set for the week of Dec. 5 at the time of writing. Advertising for the meeting–whose link can be found on the LT webpage–will start approximately a week before the meeting, Waterman said.