How to showcase the full range of your district’s programming

We all know that today’s schools do so much more than just teach students how to read and write. While providing a solid foundation in the core academic subjects will always be central to what schools do, it is only one part of the story.

However, many people in your communities — including many parents — have no idea about all of the services, programs and supports that schools offer. As you work to communicate more effectively with your communities, it can help to highlight some of these “extras” and paint a more holistic picture of your schools and district.

What to highlight

Every district has programs, services or student supports that are not widely understood or don’t receive the recognition they deserve. Creating a list of these programs or services will give you a rich pool of potential stories to draw from as you work to round  out the picture of what your district does. While each district’s list will be unique, following are a few ideas to get you started:

• Extracurricular programs: Do you have an amazing choir or drama program? Have you added a new sports offering? What unusual student clubs do you have?
• Extended day or out-of-school programs: Do you offer a before- or after-school program? Do you have summer school programs or programs to help students transition from one grade to another? Do you offer preschool?
• Student supports: What support services are available for students with disabilities or medically fragile students? What counseling and college preparation services do you offer? Do you have a mentorship or buddy system in place that students can participate in?
• College preparation: What Advanced Placement and college credit classes do you offer? What are your relationships with nearby community colleges? Do students participate in internships or job shadowing organized by your schools?
• Family supports: Do you have parent education or language classes available to parents? How can parents get involved in and volunteer with your schools? Do you have an active PTA or PTO, and how can parents get involved?
• Community programs: Do you open up part of your school, like the gym or computer lab, to community members? What school events are open to community members, and how can they find out about them? How do your students get out in the community for things like service learning projects and field trips? What are your key community partnerships, and how do they support your schools?

How to share your stories

You can share these stories through any of your regular communications channels. Following are a few ideas:

• Set up a recurring feature that highlights lesser-known programs, services or supports. This feature could be on your website home page or somewhere else easily accessible or in a monthly newsletter.
• Feature these stories in social media. Brief program highlights are perfect for social media: “Did you know …”
• Create a calendar of events and opportunities for engagement that is easily accessible on your website.
• Showcase bigger stories in traditional media. If you have a program, partnership or service that isn’t as talked about as it should be and there is something new, exciting or timely to share, consider doing a press release or pitching it directly to your local education reporter. Reporters generally have limited time to find stories and often are grateful for story ideas, especially if you can connect them with students, educators or partners associated with the topic.
• Keep it short and pack a punch. Include an interesting fact or statistic. People don’t need to know every detail about a program, but they might be interested in learning how many students take internships each year or the percentage of students who receive support for specialized learning needs. Whenever possible, provide links to where people can learn more.

Why this is important

A few educational topics get the vast majority of media coverage and public debate: testing, graduation rates, school safety and high school sports, among others. Helping to widen the conversation and paint a more complete picture of our schools and educational system can help to increase community connection with and support for schools.

Whether you are trying to pass a levy, improve community relations or better connect with your families, introducing stakeholders to the wide range of important work going on in your schools can be critical.

While the majority of your communications focus and energy will likely remain unchanged, it is worth looking for those untold stories, those educational “extras.” They may not be on the radar for many of our families and community members, but these extras often make all the difference for our kids.

As you ask for public support for your schools, it is important to make sure people understand the incredibly rich patchwork of services, programs and supports that your schools offer.

OSBA is offering a workshop on May 11 that focuses on engaging the community in your district’s efforts. Learn about the board’s unique role in community engagement and it’s connection to student achievement; hear the rationale for engaging in a master planning process, the various elements of a master facilities plan and how to authentically engage a diverse array of constituents; and discover how community engagement is essential to the development and ongoing success of community learning centers.

The cost to attend is $95. For more information and to register, visit http://links.ohioschoolboards.org/CommunityEngagement.

Contributed by Crystal Greene, communications consultant

Tip sheet for summer PR work

Those lazy, hazy days of summer are fast approaching, when school is out, and the pace slows for a few months. The temptation is to take a long, deep breath and savor the quieter days without students and staff.

While it’s fine to enjoy a little downtime, smart public relations (PR) professionals will take advantage of the more relaxed pace to regroup, recharge and get a jump start on the coming school year.

Reflect on the past year, and identify areas to improve

These slower days provide an opportunity to look back over the past year and objectively assess how different strategies worked and whether major projects had the desired impact. That’s a luxury that you typically don’t have during the rush of the school year. Invite co-workers and other key players to weigh in and incorporate their feedback into planning for the new year.

Renew your networks

Taking time away from the office to network with other PR professionals can be difficult during the school year, but it’s important to nurture those connections. Meet for coffee or lunch with PR colleagues in neighboring districts at least monthly during the summer. Pick their brains about projects you are considering that they have done successfully in their districts. Share resources.

Work on professional growth

Summer is a great time to advance your own education. Consider becoming accredited in public relations and earning an Accredited in Public Relations (APR), demonstrating competency in the knowledge and skills required to practice public relations effectively. Consider taking a professional development course, either online or in a group setting. Read a good book on communications. Attend conferences, such as the National School Public Relations Association annual conference, where you can learn new ideas and talk with fellow professionals about current issues.

Set goals

Identify areas you want to concentrate on during the coming year, and set specific goals to achieve the desired outcome. It’s not enough to just say you want to implement a parent engagement program, for example. Specify how you plan to engage parents, how many parents you want to engage and how you will measure success.

Check out new products and resources

It can be tough during the hustle and bustle of the school year to find time to research and try new products. Schedule demonstrations of different products that might help you become more efficient and effective, such as online parent engagement tools, new web options and new graphic design software.

Update your webpages

Maintaining your district webpages is an ongoing task, but you can take advantage of summer’s slower pace to review your webpages and update them for the coming year. Upload your district and school calendars and update any board or committee member names and remove outdated information. Update policies and handbooks, post school supply lists and other back to school information.

Plan and schedule events for the coming year

Parents and staff appreciate knowing as far in advance as possible of any meetings they must or want to attend so they can get the dates on their personal calendars. Schedule parent club and other regularly occurring meetings for the entire year and post them on the district website. Set dates for special events, so you can include an accurate calendar for the year in back-to- school packets.

Update photos

Summer is a great time to update your photo library with current photos of all schools, principals and district office administrators. It’s also smart to review artwork, such as images of school mascots, and update if needed.

Create brochures for each school

In this era where students and parents have many choices for schools — from neighborhood schools to charters to online academies — schools need to market themselves. Every school should have a professional- looking brochure that highlights programs, student achievement, parent involvement and the school’s unique personality. This can be a major project, especially in districts with multiple schools, so summer is an ideal time to tackle it.

Plan for back-to-school activities

Get a head start on back-to-school planning, and draft welcome-back letters to staff and parents. Create a video or PowerPoint presentation highlighting new staff to show at staff in-service. Finalize parent-student handbooks and other publications, so they are available at student registration.

Get organized

De-clutter your office and get organized. Sort through the stacks of papers and materials that have accumulated, file the good stuff, and recycle the rest. Clean out and organize your computer files and label appropriately so it’s easier to find documents when you need them. By keeping organized, you will save time looking for things and have more time to focus on important tasks.

Think positively

One of the nicest things about working in education is that you get a fresh start every school year. Start the new year with energy and a positive attitude, and be an inspiration for those around you.

Contributed by Connie Potter, communications consultant

Tips for graduation speeches

Graduation, the most important rite of passage for most teens, is a chance to celebrate student accomplishments and inspire them for the next phase of life.

For students, the graduation ceremony is a blur of activity, and most will not remember the details. A good approach is to leave them with a few moving thoughts to reflect upon, some warm feelings about their school past and some excitement about life after graduation.

Typical graduation speakers include the school principal, who has watched students grow during their high school experience, and local school board members. They have a chance to remind students of their shared experiences and leave graduates with fond feelings that can follow them for decades after they leave high school.

A graduation speech from school dignitaries should not seek to achieve the immediate gratification of respect and admiration by the whole student body but rather a warm and fuzzy feeling about the school and the high school experience. As American poet and civil rights advocate Maya Angelou said, “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

If, however, you can share wisdom that offers universal life lessons, then students would be lucky to hear it. You may even want to add it to the graduation program.

For ideas and inspiration, check out The Best Commencement Speeches, Ever,  compiled by NPR, at http://links.ohioschoolboards.org/36728. NPR has handpicked commencement addresses going back to 1774. The database is searchable by name, school, date or themes, which include embrace failure, remember history, work hard, be kind, change the world, balance and dream.

Sample graduation speech

If you find yourself in need of more guidance to help you shape the right speech for this year’s ceremony, the following sample speech might help. It can be used as is or modified to reflect your style and district.

Thank you, (name of person who introduced you). (Thank other appropriate presenters and dignitaries.)

Graduating seniors ... parents ... teachers ... administrators ... special guests ... as a member of the (district name) school board, I would like to welcome each of you here this evening to celebrate the graduation of the (insert high school) class of 2018.

You are here to stand for recognition of your efforts and your achievements. You deserve to be praised for perseverance, hard work and dedication. You have worked hard to meet our expectations for academics and social responsibility. We honor your efforts and hope that you will remember that the work you did was also for yourself and your future.

As you go forth, try to remember that your actions should help you reach life goals for continued learning, personal growth, stability and community. You are an important part of your community — whichever community you find yourself in. You will enjoy the privileges that come from being a part of the larger social circle of community, and you will meet the obligations to contribute to the people around you.

There are many here who have made it possible for these young people to graduate this evening. I would  like to start by introducing some of these people who are present on stage and have had a positive influence on this district (name appropriate presenters and dignitaries).

There is another group of individuals who cannot go unrecognized. Our teachers have had a great impact on these students. This team of educators spent many hours nurturing, guiding and interacting with students. They also have spent hours preparing lessons and providing instruction for our students during and outside of class.

Our support staff, secretaries, custodians and educational assistants also play a significant role in students’ education. I have a great amount of respect for all these groups and the work they do to make our students successful. Many of them have spent four years with these students. I would like to ask the teachers and support staff of (high school name) to please stand and be recognized.

Thank you for inviting me to be a part of this important ceremony. Participation in this momentous occasion is one of the most pleasant and satisfying parts of being a (school board member, principal).

(pause)

Seniors, as you reflect on your high school experience and look toward exciting futures, I want to remind you of some simple lessons you were taught  in kindergarten, the start of this educational journey. These lessons may be the most important lessons of your public school careers.

Robert Fulghum, a Seattle author, wrote a book several years ago titled “All I Ever Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.” I’d like to read an excerpt from that book.

“Most of what I really need to know about how to live, and what to do, and how to be, I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate school mountain, but there in the sandbox at nursery school.

“These are the things I learned: Share everything. Play fair. Don’t hit people. Put things back where you found them. Clean up your own mess. Don’t take things that aren’t yours. Say you’re sorry when you hurt somebody. Wash your hands before you eat. Flush. Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you. Live a balanced life. Learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.

“Take a nap every afternoon. When you go out  into the world, watch for traffic, hold hands and stick together. Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the plastic cup. The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.

“Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the plastic cup — they all die. So do we.

“And then remember the book about Dick and Jane and the first word you learned, the biggest word of all: LOOK. Everything you need to know is in there somewhere. The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation. Ecology and politics and sane living.

“Think of what a better world it would be if we all — the whole world — had cookies and milk about 3 o’clock every afternoon and then lay down with our blankets for a nap. Or, if we had a basic policy in our nation and other nations to always put things back where we found them and cleaned up our own messes. And, it is still true, no matter how old you are, when you go out into the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.”

(pause)

It is my privilege to officially accept this graduating class and, through that action, to signify that these young people in the (school name) high school class of 2018 have fulfilled the requirements of the state of (state name) and of the (district name) School District.

On behalf of the (district name, school board), I again congratulate you for your achievements and wish you success. May you always remember the lessons you were taught in kindergarten and continue to learn and grow throughout your life.

Contributed by Marcia Latta, communications consultant