By Amy Heaton
There are several ways for parents, students, and teachers to stay connected to the school and each other. The way that is most recognized is the famous B-CC NET, which is a yahoo group that parents can send school-wide e-mails about what is happening in all aspects of school life. B-CC ANNOUNCE is a lesser-known branch of the list services that offers only messages from administration and staff, so parents are not able to post and share their opinions. There is also a student-run website called the B-CC Classifieds, which is a way to sell used items, offer services, and announce local events.
Together, these communication devices allow people involved in the community around B-CC to be more connected to the school than ever before. They all have their good sides and their bad sides, but in all, getting in touch with people seems to be their common purpose.
B-CC NET is the most subscribed-to of the two list services. Parents have the unique ability to send out almost anything they want to the entire school community (at least the part of it that subscribed). It is moderated to make sure that the material stays school appropriate, but the topics range from what is going on with the girls basketball team to trying to sell a used piano. There are 1760 subscribers to the BCCNET.
One of the moderators, as well as one of the people who helped get BCCNET started, is Sarah Morse. She says that the BCCNET is “an important tool for building a strong community.” It is a way to get parents to be a part of the community, and stay with it. “Very few people unsubscribe after their kids graduate. They want to stay part of this community,” says Morse. She compares the BCCNET to a bus stop, saying that in Elementary and Middle School, parents had the opportunity to catch up on the community while they were waiting for the bus to come take their kids to school. In High School, since most students would not appreciate their parents coming to the bus stop with them, BCCNET allows parents to have that same connection, but in a virtual and convenient way.
On the other hand, in the month of October alone, there were around 600 messages that came through the BCCNET. While many people are fine with the number of messages, others don’t share that appreciation, especially in regards to the percentage of OT (off topic) messages. People argue that a communicating device centralized around the school is no place to be trying to find a babysitter for Friday night. That is where BCCANNOUNCE and B-CC Classifieds come in.
BCCANNOUNCE is another list service which parents can subscribe to for information on what is going on at B-CC. However, this service does not allow subscribers to post messages or replies. It offers communication directly from the school, with announcements about sports, after school activities, and academics, without the hassle of OT messages. It is similar to the “digest” option in BCCNET- parents can ask to get one message a day summing up all the topics and announcements instead of all of the messages.
In BCCANNOUNCE, parents to do not have the option to put in their opinions. Sometimes, the input from the parents has great impact on how the community is run. The ability to have their say is enough to make more subscribers choose BCCNET over BCCANNOUNCE, despite the matter of convenience. It is possible to subscribe to both list services, but it is not advised because in all they have the same material (only less in BCCANNOUNCE).
Students decided to take the OT matter into their own hands when they created the website called “B-CC Classifieds.” Started 2006 by Joseph Levy, it is now run by Taylor Brent and Davidson Girard, as well as the members of the Web Masters Club here at B-CC. “There are a lot of people trying to sell things and offer services through the BCCNET, so we started the site to give people a way to continue doing so, but without crowding peoples’ inboxes,” explains Brent, one of the site’s current operators.
Unfortunately, when people are trying to sell things or look for services, “B-CC Classifieds” is not the first place they look. “There is more selection on Craigslist and there is a wider audience on BCCNET, so people don’t look to B-CC Classifieds as a good place to go. It’s a cycle that will be hard to get out of,” says Brent. They are currently trying to advertise on BCCNET to get more people to use the site.
All three of these ways to get involved with the community are often seen as just parent-oriented services, but it is the students’ perspectives that help BCCNET thrive, that help B-CC Classifieds get involvement. In all, these services are here to help the students, parents, teachers, and anyone else associated with the B-CC community stay in touch with each other and stay connected to what is going on around them.
