Though social networking won't likely replace community forums, site council meetings or those letters sent home in kids' backpacks, local school officials say online communities such as Facebook and Twitter provide an additional way to reach out to parents, residents without kids and even students themselves.

School districts in the Portland metropolitan area also struggled, however, to figure out who would be responsible for updating and maintaining these online pages without expanding staff.

Portland Public Schools' Facebook page, which has been up nearly one month, is supposed to be a more casual and conversational way for people to see news alerts and announcements. District spokesman Matt Shelby also said the site provides a way for the district to instantly get feedback on information that's posted, such as announcements and articles.

So, far the district has about 240 "fans" following its daily updates.

"It's an additional tool to reach people," Shelby said. "We're not talking about a real viable communication tool yet. We've got 200 fans and 46,000 kids. As more people sign on and more people are viewing and interacting, there will be a variety of uses we can find for it."

Throughout the country, school districts are heading to social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Flikr and Linked In. Just this year, districts in Fort Lauderdale, Anchorage, Fort Worth and St. Louis added Facebook and Twitter to their arsenal of community outreach tools. There is even a website dedicated to helping school administrators learn how to use these sites.

Portland staff had been considering the move to Facebook for months but had to overcome some hurdles such as the district's own security. Portland Public Schools' computers are blocked from accessing Facebook. The district is maintaining its ban on the social networking site but the information technology department has allowed access for staff who will be adding new content.

Beaverton School District spokesperson Maureen Wheeler said her district is interested in going where people are congregating. So far, the district, which launched a Twitter page about a week ago, has tweeted once and gained 15 followers .

Connie Potter, communications director in the Forest Grove School District said school districts must add more communication tools such as Twitter in order to capture the attention and interest of technologically savvy parents and students.

Forest Grove's three-month-old Twitter page has 36 tweets and 97 followers.

"One size doesn't fit all anymore," Potter said. "In the old days, you could put something in the newspaper, send out a newsletter and hit most of your constituents. That's not the case anymore."

Wheeler, whose office will maintain the Beaverton page, said the district's forays into this new territory won't diminish other community building efforts.

"We're still about interaction with people, relationship building," Wheeler said. "These are great new tools but we can't lose that face-to-face piece."

Update: The Oregon School Boards Association's legislative department also recently launched a Twitter feed to provide quick updates on statewide education issues.

-- Kim Melton; Chalkitup@news.oregonian.com