By Danielle Smith

Leader Staff Writer

It seems like everybody and their brother has a podcast these days and now, Oxford Schools Superintendent Tim Throne is getting into the act.

But, his goal is not to promote himself; it’s to inform, entertain and effectively communicate with parents, students and the general public.

Throne was approached by a colleague at the end of the last school year, asking if he would be a guest on the colleague’s podcast. After receiving positive feedback, Throne was approached by Matt Johnson, director of marketing and communications, and Danielle Stublensky, communications specialist, encouraging him to create his own podcast.

The idea for the podcast was to release one every month during the school year, discussing a different topic each time.

“Our initial target was our employees and our parents, but in reality, Oxford Schools is such a part of the Oxford community as a whole that I think that it’s opening a window to reach out to our community beyond our parents,” Throne said. “So maybe grandparents or maybe people who don’t even have kids anymore in school that live in our community and they want to know what’s going on.”

Throne’s first podcast was released back in August and was focused on the start of the new school year and discussing the portrait of a graduate. His second podcast, released last week, discussed school finances and where the money comes from.

“I see a whole bunch of possibilities (for topics). From a community perspective: maybe the village manager or the township supervisor. I see maybe bringing in an Oakland County (sheriff’s deputy) and talking to him,” Throne said. “I’m sure we’ll do stuff on curriculum, on state testing. We’ll probably do more stuff on IB, we’ll talk about calendar (and) how the calendar affects us.”

Throne also anticipates a podcast dedicated to the construction that is set to begin next spring on M-24 and how it will affect the school district as well as the possibility of changing school start times.

“One of the topics that is going to come up more and more is school start times. We have always had middle school and high school start and then elementary start. Well, from our surveys, a bunch of parents have said, ‘Our elementary kids are up and at ‘em, they are ready to go, they are ready to start school at 8 o’clock.’ All of our high school parents are saying, ‘Our kids, they can sleep in until noon; why on earth are you starting middle school at 7:25, 7:30 a.m.? You need to back that up,’” Throne recalled. “Well, let’s talk about it. So I see those as possible topics and really whatever our people want to know, hopefully that’s what we’ll be talking about.”

While only two podcasts have been released so far, Throne has been encouraged by the feedback and hopes that not only staff and parents will continue to find the podcasts beneficial, but that community members will enjoy them as well.

“From my perspective, I almost want to say it’s another window into the superintendency . . . you can communicate (with the public) through a letter and you can communicate (with people) through an email, but I don’t think we are reaching everybody when we do it and this is just another way or window to try and get some of that communication out,” he said.

While he has a tentative list of topics he plans on covering this school year, Throne encourages listeners to reach out to him via email at tim.throne@oxfordschools.org if they have suggestions or want to learn about something specific. For those interested in the podcast, listeners can search “Oxford Community Schools” on SoundCloud or iTunes and can also find it on the district website, oxfordschools.org, by searching “Superintendent’s Podcast.”