Oak Harbor School District isn’t communicating well with its constituency. One candidate nearly won a school board seat running on that platform last November, and now there’s no doubt about it. A consultant hired by the district for $8,000 just came up with the same conclusion.

The consultant recommends that the district hire a full-time communications person to make sure a consistent message is being sent out on student achievement and other accomplishments.

Even Superintendent Rick Schulte wasn’t surprised by the finding of poor communication, saying the consultant simply verified what was already known. It appears that the school board is leaning toward hiring a communicator to help solve the problem.

The idea of hiring such a person should not be dismissed out of hand. Oak Harbor has particular communication problems due to the transient nature of the community, which is dominated by military children and their families. Many school districts have a widespread base of support from thousands of past graduates who still live in the area and may be community leaders. In Oak Harbor, that’s not necessarily the case. Many families are here for just a limited time and never return. Others come here to retire and have little if any personal experience with the school district. That emotional distance from the schools is difficult to overcome, particularly when any effort to make major school improvements requires 60 percent approval from voters.

A communications specialist may be able to organize and disseminate information valuable and interesting to the public, and make sure it gets out to the people. At present, news from the school district is sporadic at best. Its Web site has little timely information, and good news often is confined to the particular school building itself. Only if a teacher, parent or student makes a special effort is the community informed of an outstanding effort by a student or activity.

There is danger in hiring a communications specialist in that the community may view that person as a propagandist, delivering only good news to the masses. To be effective, the person in that position would have to make sure that good news and bad gets out, in a clear, understandable, timely fashion.

It could be argued that the district’s superintendent should be the great communicator. True, that’s where the leadership must originate. But for producing solid information consistently, it may be necessary to hire a person for that role, and also to train administrators, teachers and even students in how to communicate with the community.

The public can’t make good decisions without dependable, consistent information. A communications specialist could create a significant benefit to the Oak Harbor community.