The Albert Lea school board and administration could learn a thing or two about reaching out to the public from the United South Central school board and administration.

Earlier this month, the USC school board held a special meeting to get feedback from residents about whether to remodel the existing school in Wells or build a new one. The district contacted the news media to let them about the special meeting, and it sent buses to Bricelyn, Easton, Freeborn, Kiester and Walters to pick up residents who wanted to attend the meeting in Wells.

More than 200 people came. Wow!

This is a great example of getting buy-in from the public when making an important decision. No matter the outcome, the public will feel good about getting to provide input first. It was especially appreciated that the actual decision came at an entirely different meeting than the meeting for input. This way, the elected officials had time to weigh the feedback.

Compare that to the Albert Lea school leaders. When last fall they decided to rearrange the grades at the schools, in addition to touring schools in other cities, they wanted local feedback, too. They scheduled meetings at schools and contacted parents. They did not contact the news media about those meetings, and so the public at-large did not know about them — unless, somehow, members of the general public who were not parents had begun following the superintendent’s new blog at the school district’s former website, and a rather clunky and ugly site it was. Unlikely.

The key difference between the two approaches is that USC recognizes that it is supported by all residents of the district. Albert Lea too often acts like only parents are their constituency.

What about parents who have young children not in school yet? What about taxpayers and their concerns? What about business men and women who care about schools because they are important to the local economy?

There are many people who have a vested interests in the actions of the school board and who are not necessarily parents. In fact, some — the key word here — school leaders no doubt know this because of the referendum levy that passed in 2007, thanks to the general public, not merely parents.

If the Albert Lea administration and school board get criticism this fall for rearranging the schools, perhaps some of that criticism could have been prevented if the officials had sought wider community buy-in.

Don’t be so insular. People in general want leaders to care about their opinions, even if they disagree. That’s all.

Kudos to the United South Central school officials for making a stellar effort of reaching their constituency. It was one of the best efforts by any school officials to inform their public we’ve seen in the region in years.