Bond measure election tips and lessons

Every year, districts go to voters and fail in their endeavor to pass a bond or operational levy. Passing any kind of levy is difficult, but districts can improve their chances by taking the time to do a thorough, strategic levy planning process. This takes a lot of time and resources, but when done correctly, districts can dramatically improve their chances.

I will use a sports analogy for this process. “The will to win is not nearly as important as the will to prepare to win,” said Vince Lombardi, the famed NFL coach who led the Green Bay Packers to five championships.

You should view this process as a marathon, not a sprint. Depending on the size of your district, this process takes somewhere between 18 months and two years before Election Day.

Preseason

This part of the process is extremely important for a successful levy campaign. First, put together a district facility advisory council with people who are knowledgeable about building and construction. Get an overview of your facilities’ current state and the potential costs for improving them. Second, if you are growing  and need to add space, do you have data? Do you have a population study that helps validate what you are saying about growth and lack of space?

Also, get out into your community and hear what is on voters’ minds and what they are concerned about. You need to make sure that you fully understand the conditions of your facilities.

You will need a lot of help to run a successful bond campaign, so make sure you reach out to your associations, parent/teacher groups, local government, local businesses, chamber of commerce, service clubs and faith-based organizations.

Finally, if you or staff members have never been through a levy campaign, consider hiring a consultant who can help you. A lot of science and best practices need to be leveraged for a successful campaign.

Once you determine your district’s needs, hire a firm to do an initial survey to help vet questions you want feedback on. Important questions might be:

• How much are voters willing to tax themselves?
• What are your community’s top concerns or priorities about the district’s facilities or programs the district does or does not provide for its students?
• What other measures might be on the ballot with your measure?
• Does your community trust you to spend its money?
• What is your district’s history on levies? Is there something you need to make sure you do or don’t do to ensure the levy’s success?

Game time

Engage in actively informing and campaigning six to nine months before the election. During this time, your school board needs to decide the levy or bond amount and let voters know what you are going to ask for.

At this point, you have to decisively communicate the “why now” and “what it is” about your levy. The district and certain employees may communicate in a nonpartisan manner as district spokespersons. Usually, you will make sure patrons know that you are going on the ballot because you need more space or the current space is inadequate or, to improve learning, you need to reduce class sizes or add certain district programs.

Get out into the community and hold meetings in your schools and talk to your local chamber of commerce, service clubs and other local government agencies about why you are asking for this levy. You also may conduct another survey early in your levy campaign to help you hone your messages to voters.

Supporters should form a political action committee to raise money for your campaign. Work with your local education associations and possibly a consultant who understands campaign strategies. A consultant can bring a lot of expertise and assistance to help you work on specific campaign tasks, such as phoning, canvassing and mailings.

In general, lawn signs and billboard advertising  are not effective. In fact, they can serve as a reminder to opponents that they need to vote no.

Make sure you reach your natural supporters, including parents with kids in school, teachers, other school employees, PTA members, alumni and booster clubs. Remind them to vote as you explain why you need this measure.

District administrators can help during this phase of the campaign by being “educational experts” who talk to various community groups about the specifics of the bond or levy package. While district administrators can’t advocate, they certainly can inform patrons as to why you are proposing the measure. They also can reiterate district needs and explain exactly what you are going to do if the levy passes.

After months of tireless work, Election Day will arrive. Win or lose, your work is just beginning. You either will retool to seek an amended proposal, or you will have a bunch of work ahead of you to implement what you promised voters.

Postgame: loser

If you are not successful, and after you overcome your deep depression, you will need to take a look at your precinct data to see where you did well with voters and where you failed. You also may send out a survey to all district patrons to get feedback about what they liked or did not like about your bond package or campaign.

There may be a variety of reasons why your levy did not pass. Who helped your cause? Who hurt your cause? What are your next steps? You will need to go back into your community and hold more public meetings and begin to retool your plan and look for other options in the future.

At the end of the day, you still have the needs you originally identified, and those needs generally don’t go away or become less important to children’s education. Return to the “pregame” advice and see if perhaps you missed a few things like running your bond campaign on a November ballot with a presidential election and several other local levies for police and fire departments. Those elections have high voter turnout, and your natural supporters may be outnumbered. Reload and move forward.

Postgame: winner!

If you won your election, congratulations! Now you are embarking on a journey that will require new and exciting work. You will need to detail each project by using a project manager, architects, bid packages and, ultimately, the contractors and subcontractors who will build the capital projects you have asked for.

The work you are doing with your levy funds will ultimately help you with future bonds and voter trust if you do what you said you would do and complete all of your stated projects on budget and on schedule. Be sure you deliver on what you said you would deliver.

Bond vocabulary: a primer

• District facility advisory committee (DFAC): Districts considering a bond levy should consider convening a DFAC to inventory the state of district facilities. This group should include local citizens who have an interest in district facilities or have knowledge of and experience in your schools and/or construction and building knowledge. A DFAC can help the district develop a bond package that would go before the school board for approval and then used to develop a levy.
• Bond oversight committee (BOC): After a successful election, forming a BOC is a good idea. The group serves as a citizen oversight committee to ensure the district is doing what it said it would do during the election with the tax money. This provides another set of eyes as the district spends taxpayer dollars. BOC members also serve as key communicators. Finally, this group, hopefully, will help with future potential capital projects or operating levies.
• Political action or levy committee: This group of volunteers raises money and campaigns for your bond or levy. District employees cannot engage in any type of political action or campaigning during work hours. Administrators and the superintendent need to be particularly careful of their work with a levy campaign.
• Bond counsel: Districts need to hire bond counsel to help them comply with the legal requirements for their measures. Bond counsel will review district materials produced to communicate about the bond and ensure they are not partisan. Bond counsel also will help you craft the ballot explanatory statement to ensure it meets campaign laws. Finally, your bond counsel also can assist you in selling your bonds after you pass a capital bond and ensure you have maximized the possible levy, given the authority granted by the voters. One example of this is a bond premium, a financial instrument which allows you to leverage more dollars from your levy.
• Secretary of state elections division: Compliance officers are charged with ensuring elections are fair and any complaints regarding election activity are addressed in a lawful manner. The secretary of state ultimately certifies elections.

Contributed by Jim Golden, superintendent, Greater Albany Public Schools, Oregon

Know your community

Your school district’s success largely is determined by how well you connect with individual community members and groups.

A friend recently said to me, “We only hear from or see school district staff when the district has a levy on the ballot or wants something from us. I am active  in a lot of community groups that would like to know the people who work in our schools, but they just don’t participate. I guess they figure they don’t need to give anything back. We will vote for their operating levies and bond measures anyway, because we care about the kids in our community.”

School levies and bonds pass in my friend’s community. But if school district leadership is involved in a controversy, chances are the district’s levies and bonds will lose support.

Community support depends on establishing relationships that generate trust. Schools that are good neighbors and make themselves an integral part of the community enjoy enormous benefits.

Establishing those relationships takes time and effort. You need to know who to reach out to and how. You need to know who lives in your community, what they face in their daily lives and how to reach common ground for building meaningful relationships. This requires research about the hidden corners of your community.

Find out who they are

• A formal survey: Every community is unique with its own social composition, status symbols and accepted norms. One way to get an overview of community attitudes is a formal survey.
  While a well-designed formal survey can identify opinions about a given issue or attitude, it only is a general overview of the entire community sentiment. Unless it is limited to one community group, it does not give much guidance about individual groups who need to be reached.
  Some districts have a succession of formal surveys to gradually build a community profile, but they need much more to build good communications. True  knowledge of a community comes from taking the time and exercising patience in pursuing multiple strategies, asking the right questions, going to the right places and listening intently.
• A news media scan: News stories, opinion columns, letters to the editor and online comments on news stories indicate current hot issues and the response of the most vocal community members.
• Demographic websites: Websites, such as www.city-data.com, give insights into many areas of your community. Most condense census and public record data: rental rates; major employers; types of employment for women and men; average home cost; taxes; occupancy rates; distance traveled to work; lists of schools, churches, parks and other public and private facilities and organizations; and much more.
• Social media: Social media awareness can provide information about opinions and attitudes and inform you about community gatherings.
• In-person communications: Some groups congregate in a given place such as a restaurant, gym or athletic event. Going to these places to observe and listen can provide a lot of information and help you be seen as a friendly face that shares community interests. Get out there and talk to people.
• Staff members: Staff members who live in the community are one of your greatest resources. They talk with neighbors and belong to community groups. Ask them what they are hearing and seeing, and then look for common threads that reveal community conditions, sentiment toward schools and areas where you need to work on relationships.
• Find and connect with the opinion leaders: Communities are made up of myriad social, business and political groups, and many community members belong to a number of these groups. One way to identify community opinion leaders is to ask the members of each group who the most influential person is in that group.

List those names and the number of times each name appears. You will have a list of top opinion makers and their scope of influence. Then you can strategize the best way to communicate with these leaders, so they, in turn, can support their schools through disseminating accurate information and voicing their trust in schools and school leadership.

Know your community: A worksheet to help identify community groups and attitudes

This worksheet should help you think about your community, the groups you need to reach and possible ways to reach them. Since every community is different, you will want to modify the worksheet to meet your own needs.

Community beliefs

What gives a person status? Rank these in order of importance to your community.

____ church attendance

____ location of residence

____ kind of work one does

____ service to the community

____ length of residence

____ amount of education

____ wealth

____ family background

____ economic success

____ Other: _________________________

Answer the following questions:

• How do people react to new ideas?
• How are newcomers received by local people?
• Do people or organizations here cooperate with those in nearby communities for their mutual benefit?

Traditions

• What are the major historical developments of your community, and how are they viewed by community members?
• What has been the role of schools and school staff members in developing traditions? How is this viewed by the community?

Decision-making/leadership

• Who are the outstanding leaders in the community, and how did they attain their status?
• Who decides the big issues in your community, and what process is used?
• How is the leader’s influence exerted?

Physical setting/ population data

• l What is the size of your community?
• l What are the different neighborhoods, and what distinguishes them?

Population characteristics

• What are the age groupings in your community? What is the portion of parents to non-parents of school-age children?
• What percentage of the population is foreign-born? What nationalities are represented?
• What percent of families are single-parent families?
• What is the rate of in-migration and out-migration? Why do people move to your community, and why do they leave?
• What percentage of students attend private schools? What percent are home-schooled? What are the reasons for these choices?
• What percentage of the population finished high school, college or has advanced degrees?

Community economy

• Who are the major employers, and how many people does each of them employ? What are the characteristics of these places of employment, and what does that say about the workforce?
• What is the unemployment rate?
• What is the per-capita income?
• What is the tax rate?

Community groups

• What are the religious denominations? What percentage of the population belongs to a religious denomination? Which ones are dominant?
• How many social service agencies are there? What are they? What services do they render? Do they adequately meet community needs?
• What is the form of local government? What is the level and extent of public participation in government decision-making?
• What recreational opportunities are provided? How are they supported?
• What health services are available, including public health?

Relationships of groups

• Do organizations cooperate with each other?
• What, if any, organizations seem to be in conflict with each other?
• What groups consistently support public schools? Which groups do not appear to support public schools?
• What groups have a major interest in keeping down the tax rate?

Contributed by Gay Campbell, communications consultant

Leveraging pets in the classroom, part two

In part one of our pets-in-schools series, we posed this question: Given the choice of a cute kitten video or your quarterly message from the superintendent, where do most web clickers go?

Although it’s pretty obvious, we showed that animals elicit the positive emotional reaction you want for your schools. Here’s a glance at the excitement teachers across the country have discovered about how classroom pets affect learning and engagement. When teachers are on board, they spark other followers, and because teachers are among your best spokespeople, their message builds support and loyalty.

Amplify what teachers say

The American Humane Association’s Pets in the Classroom Study, conducted through the Pet Care Trust, surveyed nearly 1,200 teachers to learn that they believe classroom pets have real educational, leadership and character-building value. The program provides grants to pre-K through eighth-grade educators to adopt and provide ongoing care for small animals in their classrooms.

Teacher testimonials included praise for pets at school:

“I’ve noticed that kids who would never choose  to socialize and interact will get in groups and talk and laugh over something the guinea pig did.”

“I don’t think a day goes by that Puff is not  involved in some way in our room. It is not always in the written plans but just seems to happen. Students often make connections with something we are doing and relate it to Puff in some way.”

“When it has come to Norbert, every student in my classroom is engaged and excited to learn new things and be the first one to bring new information back to share with the class. I have a student who did not want to do homework of any kind, who is now volunteering  to do research on his own time to discover what foods are best for bearded dragons. … This has been, by far, one of the very best things that I have ever done for my classroom.”

These observations are great material for social media posts when talking about how your students are learning to take more responsibility, which is one of  the most important messages that resonates with the age group that votes in your school and bond elections. Any chance you have to share that type of learning will increase support.

“Students have a huge incentive to get their work done in a thorough manner so that they get a chance  to watch the lizards,” one teacher wrote in a thank-you letter to Pets in the Classroom. “It has especially helped two particular ‘work-avoidant’ students a lot!”

Creative ways to bring pets into your classroom

• Visual bait: The easiest and most effective use of pets in the classroom projects is to post great photos or short videos as “bait” to draw your audience to other content on your website or social media.
  Start simple with a great visual so while they’re catching a cute kitten photo or reptile video they also spot other information you want them to read, such as how well your students are performing on tests or an important message from the board chair.
  Just make sure you post the bait prominently, like on your home page or at the top of social media feeds.
• Storytelling: Anybody — including a kitten, dog or reptile — can write a blog, right? If you have a creative teacher or any staff member willing to ghostwrite fun antics and observations through the eyes of a pet in a classroom, the content lends itself to clever stories, plus likes and comments. A good example of a blog written by dogs is at www.ablogbydogs.com.
  Take this idea a step further with the dog “observing” how kids in the classroom are learning and how proud he is when test day comes around. Have him speak about how hard the teachers are working.
  If you’re an administrator or board member who’s known for bringing a dog to events or just being an animal lover, use that opportunity to occasionally couch some of your observations — from reading to good sportsmanship — through the eyes of your pet. You might be surprised at the “humanizing” effect being pictured with your pet will have on your audience.

A great Instagram user

Many teachers use Instagram rather than Facebook these days, so we found an elementary teacher who does an outstanding job on his Instagram page. Josh Renaud now has 1,588 followers and 1,475 posts about his projects and reptiles at www.instagram.com/mr.renaud. Direct message your questions to @mr.renaud.

As you can see, classroom pets can give you a fresh approach to messages that reinforce what your voting public wants to hear and draw your audience to your websites, social media and even newsletters and publications.

If you are considering purchasing a classroom pet, consider a grant through Pets in the Classroom. Visit their website for resources:

• Things to consider before getting a classroom pet — http://links.ohioschoolboards.org/56405
• Care sheets for your pet — http://links.ohioschoolboards.org/33174
• Grant application — http://links.ohioschoolboards.org/33961

Contributed by Shannon Priem, APR, former communications director, Oregon School Boards Association, and board member of the Willamette Humane Society

Recognize your staff and education partners

Two of the most powerful words in any language are thank you. Everyone likes being acknowledged, recognized and appreciated for the work they do and, especially, for doing the extras that are not required but make such a difference. That’s true of staff and also of school volunteers and other educational partners.

A thank-you is not the reason people contribute their time and expertise to our schools, but it may make all the difference in them continuing to do it.

It would be nice to reward people with a little extra in their paycheck or a gift card to a nice restaurant to thank them for their service. But in truth, those who contribute so much to our schools don’t expect or even want that. Most say the thanks means the most and is much simpler. It’s a handwritten note of appreciation, a phone call or a shout-out during a meeting.

With educational partners, it’s nice to say “thanks” publicly whenever possible. That not only conveys appreciation for their efforts but sets an example for other businesses or volunteers to follow.

The goal in recognizing people — whether it’s staff, volunteers or other partners — is to make them feel valued, respected and appreciated. So, it’s important that your thanks is sincere and heartfelt and not just something else to check off the list.

Saying “thanks” takes some thought, because not everyone responds in the same way to being recognized. Some enjoy stepping in front of their co-workers to receive a certificate, but others shun any spotlight. Some would just toss a certificate in a drawer, while others would frame it to proudly display in their home or office. It’s good whenever possible to tailor the recognition to the person being recognized.

However you recognize people, the simple act of doing it pays big dividends. Studies show that companies — and that includes school districts — with a solid strategy for recognizing team members see increased employee morale and lower turnover.

Following are some ideas for recognizing staff and volunteers.

Staff

• Personal profile: Highlight a different staff member every week on your school or district website or in your school newsletter. This is a great way not only to recognize individual staff members but also allow other staff and parents to get to know the staff member better.
• Personal touch: Send a personal, handwritten note that gives a specific reason for the thanks.
• Invite others to recognize coworkers: Close each staff meeting with time for staff to recognize and thank their colleagues for whatever reason, from bringing yummy treats to share to pitching in with a project.
• Public address announcement: Give public thank-yous during the morning announcements when a staff member does something beyond the expected. For example: “A big thank-you to Ms. Smith and Ms. Jones for writing and directing the second-grade holiday performance.”
• Decorate a door: Surprise a deserving teacher by having a small team of parents or other teachers decorate his or her door with fun decorations, along with a big thank-you sign.
• Food: You can’t go wrong with food. Organize a staff breakfast, or bring special treats for break time or staff meetings.
• Car wash: Parents could set up a car wash in the school parking lot and wash teachers’ cars during the school day.
• Duty-free day: Appreciative principals could relieve teachers from recess, bus, lunch or other duties.
• Kind words: Never underestimate the impact of a sincere thank-you delivered face to face.

Volunteers and other partners

• Public thanks: Give a shout-out on social media. Adding a photo is even better. Or, post a message on the school reader board or in the school newsletter, thanking volunteers and business partners.
• Volunteer event: Invite volunteers and other partners to a thank-you lunch or dessert. Decorate the cafeteria with thank-you posters made by students. Have students create special place mats.
• Public recognition: Getting recognized can be even more meaningful when it’s done in front of friends and the community. Present a certificate of appreciation at a school board meeting. Or, introduce the volunteer or community partner at a basketball game or other school event.
• Use the media: Have the superintendent write a letter to the editor or an op-ed piece in the local newspaper, acknowledging the contribution of business partners who make a difference in your school. OSBA offers a Business Honor Roll program to help districts recognize local businesses that support their schools. The deadline to nominate a business is March 23. Learn more at http://links.ohioschoolboards.org/39803.
• Bulletin board: Design a bulletin board display thanking your school volunteers and include a list of volunteers or, perhaps, even their photographs.
• Enlist students: Ask students to create thank-you cards that can be given to volunteers or business partners.
• Provide food: Provide snacks for volunteers as they work.
• Give certificates: At the end of each year, give regular volunteers certificates of appreciation.
• Give small gifts: Give volunteers a small thank- you gift, perhaps, a bookmark with a quote about the important role volunteers play.
• Handwritten card: Sometimes the best appreciation is a simple handwritten card, thanking volunteers for a specific task.

Contributed by Connie Potter, communications consultant

When and why you should meet with your editorial board

Who are the key people in your neighborhood and your community? The “influencers,” the people whose opinions you value?

These days, many of these influencers are found on Facebook and other social media. But do not overlook a traditional source: your local newspaper’s editorial board.

Why? Because if you want to influence the community’s opinion of your school or school district, it makes sense to start with the community’s influencers.

Newspapers still wield profound influence. Their print circulation is shrinking, but their online reach is growing. Along with their own websites, newspapers produce much of the news and commentary shared via social media.

Editorial board: opinion

The editorial board operates independently from the news-reporting and news-editing staff.

Editorials are a way that newspapers exert civic leadership by examining issues and seeking answers. Editorials are the institutional voice of the newspaper, which is why they commonly are unsigned. They represent the view of the editorial board, not the newspaper staff as a whole. They are published on a newspaper’s opinion, editorial, viewpoints or similarly named page.

At some newspapers, generally very small ones, the editor or publisher is a one-person editorial board who decides the newspaper’s stances and writes the editorials. However, most newspapers have editorial boards that include the publisher/president, editorial page editor and any editorial writers. Newspapers differ as to whether  the top editor and/or other newspaper employers sit on editorial boards. Community members may be included as well.

Editorial boards operate by consensus when possible, although, the newspaper publisher/president retains the ultimate say.  The person assigned to write the editorial is like a speechwriter presenting the board’s opinion, not his or her own view.

Why should we care?

A well-informed editorial board is a tremendous asset to a community. Its members are people who know the community, keep up on issues and are unafraid to take strong stands. A well-written editorial does not tell readers what to think; it informs readers, presents the editorial board’s view and spurs readers to action. In the end, readers always get the last word through letters to the editor.

On the pro side, an editorial can advance a school district’s cause, explain a controversial decision or bring healing amid sorrow. On the con side, an editorial can blindside a school district, shaping community opinion that lacks nuance or context. Savvy communicators can encourage the former and deter the latter.

Your expertise matters

As an editorial writer/editor for more than 25 years, I wrote several thousand editorials and participated in hundreds, maybe thousands, of editorial board meetings. I appreciated hearing from thoughtful, well-informed and respectful civic leaders. Their insights enhanced our knowledge. They influenced what we said in our editorials and, even more important, what we decided not to say.

On the other hand, some editorial board guests were ill-prepared, verbose or condescending. They did themselves and their organizations no favors.

When and why to meet

When a crisis hits, it’s too late to nurture good relationships with an editorial board. Like any trusting relationships, those develop over time. Nevertheless, school leaders should meet with the editorial board as soon as possible when there is a school-community crisis. Otherwise, one of those aforementioned uninformed or blindsiding editorials could be published.

Start building those relationships by arranging editorial board meetings on cycles that make sense both for the board and the school district. For example, meet with the editorial board before the start of the school year, when next year’s budget or a major policy shift is proposed and always when a tax increase or levy is being considered.

Make contact early in the process so the editorial board knows what’s going on. Editorial boards don’t like being blindsided, and neither does a community.

Contacting the editorial board

Editorial boards are on a journalistic treadmill. They need to get something from meeting with you: information and context that can generate an editorial. They don’t have time for meet-and-greet or get-to-know- you sessions.

The newspaper’s editorial/opinion pages usually list whom to contact, such as the editorial page editor. Call or email the person. Be concise but specific about why you want to meet. For example, the school board is starting the search for the new superintendent, and you want to update the editorial board on the process.

Tip one: Never call on a Friday. Editorial page editors have a full weekend’s opinion pages to produce and are even more stressed than usual.

Tip two: Research shows that mornings are best for having everyone’s attention — achieving your preferred outcome in a meeting — but meet at the editorial board’s convenience.

How to prepare

Put together a one- or two-page bulleted list of your key points. Email it to your editorial board contact ahead of time and bring copies to the meeting.

Prepare as if it were a job interview. In some ways, it is. The meeting will determine whether the board agrees with you. Expect tough questions; that is the editorial board’s role. Gather the statistics, stories and other details that buttress your case. Be prepared to present them succinctly.

What to expect

You might meet with one person or several. Ahead of time, ask about the format and what the board prefers. Expect a discussion. Don’t dominate or pontificate. Don’t come in with an agenda that you expect the editorial board to follow. Most want you to give no more than a five-minute opening summary, and then the board members will plunge in with questions. Go with the flow.

Be prepared if the board asks what you want from the meeting. For example: We hope you will endorse our bond measure.

Afterward

Editorial board members might or might not indicate their opinions during the meeting. As editorial page editor, I saw my role as being a surrogate for the community and asking probing questions. I was looking for information and insights to help shape an editorial. As such, I tried to keep a poker face. Even if I had an opinion, I didn’t know what the overall editorial board would decide.

Sometimes a reporter attends the meeting and writes a story; however, that reporter does not participate in the board’s decision. Editorial board members meet in private afterward and decide the newspaper’s viewpoint.

Newspapers vary as to whether the finished editorials, as well as other content, are posted online immediately or in conjunction with print publication.

Editorial writers

Following are 10 tips — slightly exaggerated — for meeting with editorial boards:

• They have short attention spans.
• They expect you to get right to the point instead of beating around the bush. As journalists say, “Don’t bury the lead (or lede).”
• What matters is what they want to know, not what you want to tell them.
• It’s a good sign when they’re asking questions. It’s even better if they’re arguing with you. In either case, that means they’re engaged instead of bored.
• Let them control the conversation.
• They are busy and may do their work at the last minute. They often can’t say when an editorial will be written, what it will say or when it will be published.
• Keep it simple. They may not find time to read the budget books or other documents you provide.
• The conversation will go better if you accommodate your schedule to theirs instead of vice versa.
• They don’t like being lectured to.
• If they disagree with what you’re presenting, don’t get offended or take it personally. They have a right to their opinions.

Contributed by Dick Hughes, communications consultant. He was a board member of the National Conference of Editorial Writers, led its editorial-critique sessions and conducted editorial-writing seminars throughout the U.S. Contact him at thehughesisms@gmail.com.