CARIBOU, Maine — RSU 39 is planning a series of podcasts that will focus on a variety of topics related to the school district, according to Superintendent Tim Doak, who said they plan to release episodes after April vacation.
The inspiration came shortly after Doak was featured on a podcast hosted by SchoolCEO, a national magazine focused on school leadership and marketing. In the episode, Doak discussed the importance of building connections with businesses while being based in a rural area.
When people at RSU 39’s Caribou schools listened to the podcast, Doak said they suggested hosting a regular podcast focused on their schools. From there, they began forming the idea for two podcasts: Viking Vision, which will focus on Caribou High School; and Viking Voices, which will focus on the new Caribou Community School.
“We’re going to talk about everything from curriculum changes at the high school, our annual budget process and what summer programming could look like with our relationship to the rec department,” he said. “They will be about anything we feel would benefit for people to learn more about, like what we’re doing in the COVID pandemic — it’s just a way to promote more public knowledge.”
And on the topic of COVID-19, he said the pandemic helped inspire the idea.
“One thing that COVID actually provided for us was the push forward of using technology not just for research but for learning and information,” he said. “Not just surfing the web to find out information, but how to use it to teach with and communicate with. It’s a really positive thing about COVID.”
Federal COVID-19 funding would also be a major topic of discussion on the podcast.
“I’d like to go through the different federal funds we received, what was purchased with those funds, and how that was used,” he said.
The hosts of each episode may also rotate depending on the topic discussed.
“We’re not just going to have one person do them,” he said. “We’ll feature principals, our tech director, some staff in the community school. I will do some and [Assistant Superintendent Jane McCall] could do some.”
Additional guests could include teachers, student athletes and students aspiring to go into STEM programs.
Initially he said the plan was to do one podcast for the entire district, but he and other administrators later felt that parents may want to tune into a podcast specifically related to the school their child is attending.
There is no set schedule at this point, but as the series builds up momentum, he said he would like to release episodes more frequently.
“We want to go big with it as much as we can, but we also want to start slow by having one a week,” he said.
This may lead to video podcasting, he said.
“We have purchased cameras and microphones just for the podcasting piece too,” he said. “And our high school is doing some of this with the JMG [Jobs for Maine Graduates]program.”
Episodes will be available on the RSU 39 website, rsu39.org, under the podcast tab once released. Doak said he plans to release somewhat short episodes to maintain listener interest.
“We want them to have good, quick information and that they make you want to listen to the next one. We just want to make sure we’re not pressing anyone’s attention span, so we’re looking at 10 to 15 minutes,” he said.
He said the podcast itself will not have a specific theme, and that any topics related to Caribou High School and Caribou Community School could be featured in an episode.
“I think this is a push toward getting us into the 21st century,” Doak said.
