CLAUDE, TEXAS -- Facebook has become a social frenzy that most everybody is using to stay informed and in touch. One area school district is taking advantage of it and even gaining statewide attention. For the past year, schools is Claude have been using facebook to post news on everything from their academic achievements to sports scores. The school says using the social network couldn't be more of a success. "Technology is going to continue to evolve and we've got to be the ones to lead the way if we're not, we're short changing our students," said Toby Tucker, Claude ISD Superintendent. Tucker says in their first year of using facebook it's been a huge success. The district's page currently has over 600 followers from students, faculty, parents to the community.
"We started facebook just as a way to communicate with our kids. We felt like we weren't reaching our families reaching our kids and so we wanted to do things that they do and that's facebook and that's the biggest way our kids, students and parents communicate," said Tucker. Followers can keep up with the elementary, junior high and high school's academic achievements, sports, special event reminders and each week a few high school students post their own web newscast put on and together by them.
"We just record events and stuff that's going on around the school interview students and teachers and faculty and all that just to, you know, give everybody an inside to what's going on," said Hayden Sanders a student and helps with the Claude Cast.
"We control our content that goes on there. We only allow our school to publish things, but we do allow comments to be made and it's been some of the best we've seen whether its succeeding on a TASK test, getting feedback saying we're proud of our school or winning a football game," said Tucker. The school using facebook has been such a success, they were featured in a statewide magazine. And now Tucker says he gets at least 5 phone calls a day from other school districts wanting advice.
