Carlynton officials are considering whether a paperless way of communicating with each other and the community is worth the annual costs associated with the software.
School board members were presented a video presentation about BoardDocs, software that is becoming popular among school boards and municipal governments, said Andrew Klein, who conducted the video conference for the district.
Klein said more than 3,000 governing bodies nationwide use BoardDocs, including Pittsburgh-area school districts like North Allegheny, North Hills, Quaker Valley and Franklin Regional.
“It’s a centralized location for everything related to the board,” said Klein, who called the software a one-stop shop. “The real value is streamlining the administration work.”
Two editions are available, based on a district’s needs. With Board Docs LT, officials can manage agendas and policies, use with phones and tablets, operate with the cloud rather than local servers and have 24/7 customer support.
BoardDocs Pro offers the LT package plus events management, board member pages and packets, multi-user authoring and approvals and a deep library management.
The public can view documents, such as meeting agendas and policies. Administrators and board members would have a private section for personnel items.
The LT edition has an approximate fee of $2,000. The Pro edition is around $10,000. BoardDocs offers unlimited training hours so officials can get the most out of the software program.
Carlynton board President Jim Schriver said if the board decides to use BoardDocs, he would prefer starting with the LT edition.
Klein said most districts use the Pro edition, but can start with the LT and later upgrade.
“Either way, you will save hours of time,” Klein said.
