In order to complete this activity, I spoke with KS, a high school senior, and with RB, the mother of several lower school students, about our school’s Handbook. I also looked at the handbooks of two of the schools in our area and evaluated our own with fresh eyes.
The truth of the matter is that everyone I spoke with was satisfied with the Handbook. They felt it contained a comprehensive collection of the information they expected it to with no obvious omissions.
RB, the mother with whom I spoke, felt that the Hnadbook should contain more specific dates for events but acknowledged that most of those dates were probably not finalized when the book went to print at the start of the school year. This promted an interesting discussion of whether the book neeeded to be printed at all -as opposed to being a digital publication- but she felt that having a physical book you could pull out and reference was valuable.
This seemed unnecessary to KS who, with his younger perspective, felt that a digital-only copy would be enough. He also pointed out that, if the book were an online publication, then when dates changed, rules were updated or information became available, the “book” could be updated easily.
The only real criticism I have for the book is its organization. I know from my own experience that the Handbook has gone through a number of reorganizations over the last several years and nobody has really been satisfied with any one version since people are always confused about where to find particular bits of information. My suggestion is to index the Handbook thouroughly, cross-referencing information as exhausitvely as possible to make it easy to find things.