Letter: Lee School Board needs new image

Editor, The Banner:

To the honorable members of the Lee County School Board:

Having retired from the advertising field, I have a first-hand appreciation and understanding of the concept of image and its value, especially to an elected governmental board. If one examines media reports over the last few years, the overall tone has, too often, been negative, and too often, it has been self-inflicted.

It is an unfortunate reality that image is often more important that reality, and its transliteration through the media can be devastating, especially if the principal, i.e., the district, has contributed, albeit inadvertently, to the negative tone. I am writing particularly about the tape of the board meeting of May 1, and I urge each board member to view that tape to see an example of how you project that negative image. I offer the following critique of said tape:

1. Every meeting, no matter how seemingly inconsequential, should be televised, lest it play into the traditional public fear that you are hiding something. While said fear may be irrational, it is genuine, and televising every meeting promotes the image of government in the sunshine.

2. Always meet in the board chamber. It is vital that the board project a professional image. The room in which the May 1 meeting was held projected a shabby, "Who cares?" attitude with a makeshift setting, amateur camera operation, etc.

3. As to the tape itself, this is supposed to be a permanent public record of a board meeting and yet, the tape shows a sloppy, unprofessional, amateurish job — some parts are inaudible due to a lack of proper microphonage, some segments have a picture blocked by electronic interference; the camera operation is haphazard at best. Frankly, when added to the room setting, it looks like a high school video project gone wrong.

Image is made up of hundreds of seemingly inconsequential bits and the principals, i.e., you do not know which one might be a land mine that will explode into media headlines. Thus, every aspect and word must be carefully orchestrated to avoid that explosion. I suggest that you show this letter and tape to the new PR director to verify my contentions.

— Peter Hare / Cape Coral