Key Communicators are people who are active in the community. They have many connections in the community, speak often to various people in the community who are trusted and widely regarded for their leadership and input. Key Communicators might be local business owners, retirees, parents, or community members. They are sincere dedicated people who want to be involved and care about our schools. The concept of key communicators, I believe, was developed by Dr. Rich Bagin, Executive Director of the National School Public Relations Association.
The NSBA Tip Sheet on Key Communicators
People talk to people … those people talk to other people. And that is how a lot of school news gets around. One problem is that this communication system is unreliable and usually one-way. Bits of information filter outward from the schools into the community along informal channels without accuracy or completeness. Thus, rumors form, spread, and become difficult to counteract. When the misinformation filters back to school officials, it is often too late for a meaningful response, and sparks that could have been quickly snuffed out become major fires. School board members and administrators from every school district can cite examples in which rapidly spreading rumors caused misunderstandings to multiply. In these cases, crises that could have been headed off happened so quickly that the usual newsletters and news releases were useless.
What? To control this grapevine system of communications, set up an active key communicator network. Essentially, a key communicator network is a group of opinion leaders who establish solid two-way communications among organizations and their publics. These opinion leaders talk to lots of people who tend to listen to what they have to say. Key communicators agree to disseminate accurate information and correct misinformation about the school system. They keep in touch with school officials and immediately report misperceptions and inaccuracies.
A key communicator network allows a school district to get accurate news out to the staff and community quickly. It enables school officials to intercept potentially harmful rumors. And it costs very little to set up and maintain.
Why? Research shows that people believe their friends and neighbors more than they believe the media. Marketing research supports this view, revealing that people make major purchases based on what others tell them about a product or a service. It is reasonable to assume that people make decisions about schools the same way. Thus, school officials must spend time cultivating relationships with key employees and community members and keeping them informed if they want to gain understanding and acceptance of their school programs. Studies have found that mass communication generally does not change minds but only reinforces existing positions, activating opposition as well as support. One-on-one communication, on the other hand, is quiet and speaks directly to the target audiences. The aim of key communicators is to build support, deflecting any effects of criticism. The media rarely launch crusades; they usually report the ideas of others. A well-organized, campaign targeting opinion leaders discourages attacks by going straight to the people who bring issues to the media.
Benefits of a Key Communicator Network Being person-to-person in nature, the program enables school officials to establish two-way communication and get a quick pulse of the community. The program helps to bridge the distance between school officials and the community – the community gets to know school officials as people, not distant figureheads. Regular communications to key opinion leaders offers more opportunities to convey the many successes of positive accomplishments in the schools. A major benefit of the program is rumor control or a controlled grapevine whereby volatile issues or confrontations are quickly communicated to these opinion leaders. Communicating negative news or problems to this group also establishes candor and openness and ultimately will establish credibility between school officials and the citizenry.
Who? Key communicators are adults and students who have credibility in the community. They may or may not be in positions of authority or officially recognized leaders. They may be barbers, beauticians, or bartenders. They often are dentists, gas station owners, firefighters, post office clerks, and news agency owners. Within a school, they are often secretaries or custodians. In one way or another, however, these opinion leaders have an interest in their community schools. Interestingly, opinion leaders who make up a successful key communicator network are seldom the loudmouths who complain at every school board meeting. More likely, they are the people who only speak when they feel it is important and when they have a valid statement to make. They are the people others ask
“What do you think about … ?” Key communicators should represent the different demographic segments of the community as well as the various segments of the school district staff. Having good two-way communication in place internally is extremely important. Employees resent hearing school information first from community residents. Key communicators are everywhere, but even though they are highly influential, they may not be highly visible. Their distinguishing characteristics are that they are well-respected and people trust their opinions. Critics should definitely be invited. In a group of 10 people, one or two critics usually add credibility to the undertaking. Experience has shown that after involvement in a key communicator process, critics frequently become supporters.
Where? The work of key communicators is carried out in churches, homes, businesses, organization meetings, clubs, or schools. Only one meeting of all the key communicators is usually necessary, and it should be brief and to the point. Much of the two-way communication between a key communicator and school officials is by phone, brief mailings, or in person. To better communicate with your key communicator network, you may want to set up a telephone system to record 30-second messages relaying the facts of the situation and telling callers to dial another number for more information. If a crisis develops in one school, the system allows calls to the key communicators serving that school. When? A good time to start a key communicator network is in the fall. While key communicators are most helpful in a time of trouble or turmoil, you need to establish mutual trust and credibility before you can depend on them to call you when they hear a rumor or to set someone straight who’s spreading misinformation. Once key communicators are identified, it is critical to communicate with them regularly on a personal, one-to-one basis. Their phone calls to school officials should be returned immediately, and their requests for information answered promptly. If you expect them to share good news about the schools, they must have that information in a timely and understandable fashion.
By Rich Bagin, Executive Director of the National School Public Relations Association
Rich Bagin accepting the “Outstand Freind of Public Education award, presented by Eric King, President-elect of the HML
Rich Bagin accepted the award for the 2017 “Outstanding Friend of Public Education.”
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Here are 5 things to consider when attempting to make your schools your community’s schools of choice:
1. Focus on the LOCAL SCHOOL, not the School District per se. Now maybe the time to take a different strategy when it comes to competing in this era of choice.
We can continue to whiz on one another when it comes to achievement results, graduation rates, college acceptances, etc. We also can brag about the fact that we teach all students — not just those who could be considered, in youth sports vernacular, the traveling squad of an elite under-13 b-ball team.
But guess what?
Much of what we say doesn’t matter.
As much as that hurts me to say it, much of what we say doesn’t matter. But we do need to continue to say it with new approaches and different audiences.
Only our advocates and perhaps a few reporters seem to listen to us.
So to return to this era of political communication, you can see that OUR base listens to us, while THEIR base obviously doesn’t.
I am asking you to consider switching strategies. Focus on your individual schools because on the local level, your Snyder Elementary School is being compared to the ABC Charter Academy down the street.
It is time to talk about individual schools and not just your school district.
For most parents and decision makers, it becomes a SCHOOL versus SCHOOL issue.
I urge you take a fresh look at this approach and begin a process of defining an identity program that is built by parents and staff at each of your schools.
Your staff and parents need to believe that Snyder Elementary School offers a great opportunity for their children and that your staff goes the extra mile and cares about their children.
This July, NSPRA will be offering a guidebook on Making and Marketing Your School as a School of Choice on this topic. The booklet explains a process of getting staff and parents together, collaborating to solve some image problems that their school may have, and then developing a marketing plan to maintain and boost enrollment in their school. It also urges readers to look at the messaging of the ABC Academy on the other side of the street, see what they tout that may be attacking one of your perceived weaknesses.
Taking this School versus School approach allows you to play your comprehensive district’s card as a value-added benefit.
All the auxiliary services and benefits that you provide — from counseling, the spectrum of Special Ed programs, co-curricular opportunities, and enhanced technology programs — all add up to a major plus when people consider choosing a school.
If what you offer is unmatched, say so with a checklist approach similar to a report card that clearly communicates what your competing charter doesn’t have. We need to be proactive about our attributes in this era of competition.
A commitment to this school-by-school strategy can benefit you in various ways:
It can reduce your need to focus on perceived Big Public Education problems. You will be dealing with what’s really important to your local community, their kids, and their schools.
Our research over the past 10 years continues to reveal that school-based communication is often the most read communication offering in school districts today. You have always had the attention of parents. But now in this era of over-communication, it is more important than ever.
Believe it or not, in a single second, 2.5 million emails are sent, and in that same second:-
193,000 text messages are posted
219,000 posts are added to Facebook
7,2590 tweets are sent
To break through this clutter, you need an interested audience.
And you have it, for the most part, with your PARENTS.
Most parents and families have a vested interest in their child’s school ¾ much more than in your school district. Take advantage of it and build support at the school level.
It will spill over into their next school in your district and continue through their entire time with your schools. You can then convert these parents into supporters for your schools. They understand your schools and will not believe the public-education bashing because their experience trumps all the negative rhetoric they hear.
But this will not happen unless we continue to be proactive in developing school communication programs at each school.
2. Internal Communication is critical to be successful. Create a CULTURE OF COMMUNICATION in your districts.
As we complete communication audits for school districts across the country, we see that by far the weakest component is internal communication.
Ideally, we want all staff to become ambassadors for their schools, to vote in finance elections where it applies, and to become advocates for their schools, their children, and their communities. Unfortunately, this rarely happens.
Lots of lip service is given to having internal communication but it often breaks down quickly as pockets of staff have little knowledge or a feeling that they know what is really going on.
They report little authentic engagement — even when their input is sought on topics of mutual interest. Most school districts have a problem in closing the communication loop when it comes to internal communication.
Superintendents can make a big difference in setting the parameters for the importance of communication at every level. Our experience tells us that communication accountability is rarely measured and that may be the clue to solve this disparity.
We need to hold principals, central office administrators, service personnel supervisors, and others accountable with a communication component in their evaluations. (What gets measured gets done.)
Some do a great job communicating internally, while others ignore it. I can’t tell you how many times we have heard from a staff member, “Well, I find out what’s happening around here by calling my colleague in another building because their principal tells her staff what is going on and why decisions are made.”
In many cases, the staff actually want to know what’s going on and can’t get an answer without fishing for it.
It does not have to be that way.
As superintendents, you can begin by modeling an approach to start the process to make internal communication a priority. You can begin by planting the seeds for a culture of communication in your district.
All staff are part of your communication effort and, by making a commitment to communication awareness and with a bit of training, you can make it happen.
To make my point about the power of internal communication, one staff member recently reported from an audit of a school district with 25,000 students:
“When the district’s tagline is not believed by the frontline, this district is headed for big trouble.”
Repeat, “When the district’s tagline is not believed by the frontline, this district is headed for big trouble.”
3. Like it or not, political communication is now part of our jobs. There is no denying that our jobs have changed. The new wave of elected officials is empowered as a result of their recent victories. They psychologically seem to be on a roll and are attempting to move their agenda as quickly as possible. So like it or not, we need to think like a politician.
Here’s some insight:
Jay Rosen writing for a New York University publication asked us to answer these questions if we are to think politically:
What do we stand for that others also believe in?
Who is aligned against us?
Where are we most vulnerable?
What are our opponents’ strengths?
How can we broaden our base?
Who are our natural allies?
What can we unite around, despite our internal differences?
What are the overlapping interests that might permit us to make common cause with people who are not (education leaders)?
And David Ignatius of The Washington Post, wrote a piece after the election entitled, The Truth Is Losing. In an interview with the State Department’s Richard Stengel, Ignatius offered:
“We like to think that truth has to battle itself out in the marketplace of ideas. Well, it may be losing in that marketplace today. Simply having fact-based messaging is not sufficient to win the information war.”
The article points out that going “tit for tat” in arguing with extremists through social media was not that fruitful. Stengel noted that by empowering others to be the messenger, they could make the case more emphatically. “The central insight was that we’re not the best messenger for our messages because in the post-truth world, the people we are trying to reach automatically question anything from the U.S. government.” With today’s climate, this may ring true with some of your audiences as well.
Have others tell your story: Begin or revitalize a true Key Communicator Program
In my 40 years in this business, I have never seen this tactic fail if executed correctly—Never!
Over the years, it has been watered down by some as an old-fashioned listserv, but used correctly, a Key Communicator Program can be valuable.
Some key points are:
This trust-building tactic is critical in today’s instant communication world. You truly need a Key Communicator Program to inspire confidence in what you say and do. It adds credibility.
Unfortunately over recent years, as I already noted, we’ve seen an increase of Key Communicator Programs that have turned into little more than listservs in certain communities. If you’re tapping the old and new power structures in your community, regularly meeting with small segments of your key communicators, and communicating with them electronically, you’ll be on your way to building a base of well-respected spokespeople for your schools. As David Ogilvy reminded us, “Don’t count the people that you reach, reach the people who count.”
Remember, many parents and others may prefer to hear their school messages from respected leaders and neighbors rather than from school officials. If run appropriately, this Key Communicator process can help you develop credibility in this era of anything-goes social media.
One last note on Key Communicators: People need to get to know you face to face. Only then can you can begin using your earned credibility through videos, Twitter, email, Facebook, etc. But first, you need to start with in-person meetings — otherwise people may just see you as another empty pitchman or woman for your schools — sort of like the ones you see on late-night insurance commercials.
May the truth be known: Set-the-record-straight feature on websites and social media
We’ve seen districts dedicate a section on their websites or Facebook pages to setting the record straight. Even though research may show that fake news may still overcome this practice, it’s often refreshing for school employees to know that someone is defending “the truth” about their schools. And in some ways, it shows that the superintendent has their collective backs.
Be prepared. Set up a process for staff to report fake news items to you so that your leadership is aware of what’s out there. Once you know, you can decide what to do or not to do but, some staff member who has good judgment should be responsible to monitor the fake news front on a daily basis.
4. Support communication as a management function.
By now, I hope you are beginning to see that communication should be a management function. You need to integrate communication into all that you do or you will risk losing the battle we now face. A strong communication function will help you advance your system during this period of uncertainty.
As you can see by now, I am not talking just about great publicity but about engagement, marketing, reputationmanagement, ongoing internal engagement, and external communication programs.
You need to have someone who knows what they are doing to make your communication function be as effective as it can be.
Former vice President Joe Biden, (“Uncle Joe” to some of us), often says he can tell an organization’s priorities very quickly by looking at their line-item budgets.
Using Uncle Joe’s formula, I can tell you that communication is not a priority in most school districts right now. Our research shows that most NSPRA districts spend just one tenth of one percent of their entire school district budget on communication. One tenth of one percent — that’s .001% — Really? Charter organizations are spending from 10 to 25% or more on their communication and marketing efforts according to our observations. Budget wise, this is not a fair fight!
Every year for our Annual Seminar, we receive proposals to run sessions entitled PR on Shoestring. During my tenure, we’ve never accepted any of them because that’s the wrong message to send if we want to make a management commitment to communication. And most of these shoestring programs normally trip over their own laces and die easily because the district made no commitment to it.
Communication must be a management function.
5. We need to tell our stories, and leverage technology and our integrity
We need to share many of our best stories so our key audiences understand what we are all about. Quick videos can help and use them through social media can make a difference.
Recently we ran a story from a Missouri district that told its story of middle school students crafting new laws for their municipality, discussing their ideas with a volunteer community lawyer, and then going to court to present their new proposals to a local courtroom judge. This project demonstrated kids and teachers having fun through the teaching/learning experience. It was a great story.
We know that hundreds of relevant, uplifting stories happen every day. It’s our job to share them with our communities.
Since technology is exploding in our field of communication, you can leverage it to expand your reach and vitality in your community. Just make sure the focus meets your strategic messages for your school community. Make sure your social media efforts are completed with a purpose.
And finally, in this fake-news, alternative-fact world, you need to bring integrity into this discussion. Character counts in our world of communication.
We see so much twisting of facts, just plain mistruths or half-truths along with the fake news accounts. Your staff and community need to know that you stand for integrity.
Today, with a smartphone, anyone can publish any falsehood. But reasonable parents, staff, and others need to know what’s true, where you stand, and how you will lead your system. Don’t let silence create a vacuum—your critics will quickly fill it.
We have always said that the term “PR” really stands for 2 items:
Having a Public Responsibility to communicate
And Developing Public Relationships.
That is where we build credibility and trust through authentic communication.
Today, I thank the Horace Mann League for its award and I am committed to making even more Friends of Public Education as we all know that we need as many friends as we can get.
Please join me in making that happen. Because I ask if we do not do it, who will?
Make that commitment at the local level now, more than ever.
Thanks again.
_______
Thanks to HML leadership and the Executive Board for this honor. I have always found it easy to be a friend of public education ¾ like most people in this room, I have devoted just about all my career building more support for public education.
And one note before I try to persuade you as to why we need more communication and engagement than ever since we are in an Era of Viral Disruption — as Ted Koppel puts it.
Our opposition often throws nonsense into the discussion just to distract us from what they are trying to accomplish.
I want to stop and also thank my wife, Carolyn, who has been a vital force in the success of my career and has brought much happiness and value to my life. Thanks, Dear… I wish even more people knew how truly special you are. But we do have one glimmer of that as she has just won an international business communication award which she will pick up in Dublin, Ireland, next October.
The new leadership in Washington is creating fear and confrontation, proposing weaker funding, and increasing doubt about what I call Big Public Education. (Gallup Reference/PDK Big Education is a collection of the highly ranked local schools—go figure!)
And the new administration’s misguided optimism is like our first-year teachers who are ready to conquer the world for their students. And even though it seems that the administration is succeeding at this point, they, like our first-year teachers, are beginning to realize that achieving their mission may not be as easy as it seems.
Their overall mission seems to be killing public education as a viable pathway for all our students—not just those students in their charter or voucher schools.
Our nation’s system of check and balances is helping to stop them, but our education community needs to do more to create hurdles, roadblocks, and pressure wherever we can. And we also need to continue to do great work!
Now we have been fighting this bashing for some time. And, like you, I am sick and tired of defending what we do for children ¾ along with the notion that what we do is not nearly enough.
At NSPRA, we applaud and admire Horace Mann League and I hope you appreciate the changes made by HML in the past few years. The league is now providing you with helpful ammunition of persuasive articles every Monday morning. We tip our hat to Jack McKay and others who help make that happen.
To help in that effort, NSPRA also publishes all the persuasive articles we can by pointing out the silly comparisons and foibles being promoted by our competition.
The facts are ¾ if anyone pays attention to facts these days ¾ that our public schools are doing exceedingly well where we have the resources and the consistency of leadership to do our jobs.
Yes, consistency of leadership is so important as I’ve learned from my years in this business. If anything, our school boards need to learn from professional sports ¾ don’t change your superintendent every 2 to 3 years unless you want to consistently fail and badger your staff with start/stop initiatives.
Public education continues to improve and, yet, we still have pockets of students who need much more than instructional assistance — as Jim Harvey clearly pointed out in his recent study and the impactful HML report: The Iceberg Effect.
You know better than others just how hard it is to teach children who do not show up or who are dealing with health, poverty, hunger, and lack of home support.
So, now, let me give you my take on what to do about all this from a communication, engagement and strategic standpoint:
First, let me say that it appears that charters are here to stay.
I know that some states are still combatting new legislation, but we feel the charter train has left the station. Vouchers, however, are a much different story.
And for anyone who will listen, a number of recent studies have shown that students in voucher programs do not achieve well in their new settings.
In any event, we see using public dollars for private schools as wrong.
That doesn’t mean we cannot work together and collaborate for the good of the community where possible, but funding private schools with public dollars is just a no-no as far as we are concerned.
While completing a communication audit years ago, a wise superintendent told me that he legally does all he can for the parochial schools in his district. He said, “Rich, after all, THEY ARE ALL OUR CHILDREN.”
That’s a good approach and it worked well for his school community.
by Dan Rather and Elliot Kirschner
What Unites Us: Reflections on Patriotism
Page 203:
Given the current struggles with the United States, it may be hard to remember that up until relatively recently our school system was the envy of the world,. That was an outgrowth of our changing country, for while some public schools existed early on, it was really the rise of education reformers in the antebellum era that set us on the path to true public education. Few loom larger than Horace Mann, who argued that a truly free populace could not remain ignorant and that communities must provide nonsectarian public schools, staffed by trained teachers and open to students of diverse backgrounds. His reforms for primary eventually secondary education, begun in Massachusetts, soon spread to other parts of the country, especially as the nation was shifting from an agricultural to an industrial economy, and from rural areas to urban.
As the era of social media took off nearly a decade ago, public relations strategies that involve email were predicted to go in the same direction as landline phones and print newspapers. But, something quite different happened. To put it best, a New York Times headline recently noted: “For Email Newsletters, a Death Greatly Exaggerated.”
Email has not died. In fact, e-publications can be an effective tool in your school communication playbook. According to that Times story, “Newsletters are clicking because readers have grown tired of the endless stream of information on the Internet, and having something finite and recognizable show up in your inbox can impose order on all that chaos.”
Making it ‘Readable and Engaging’
Your district’s e-newsletter can still be a way to reinforce messaging, build your brand and educate your community. But the content of these newsletters has changed, or let’s say it had better change if you want people to read them. Gone are the days of the long feature story or the ghost-written “message from the superintendent’s desk.” There are ways to make your emails readable and engaging, and if you want to be successful instead of becoming a victim of the dreaded “unsubscribed,” incorporate the following ideas into your e-publication.
What Are Your Outcomes?
Like any public relations project, the e-newsletter should have measurable objectives. First, determine if you have a large enough email database (along with a way to consistently collect more email addresses) to justify the time spent on creating a newsletter. Direct mail is still effective in reach. Even though it might not be as cost-effective as sending out a monthly email, you need to know what works best for your audience.
Next, think about what you want the content to achieve. Hubspot, an industry leader in email marketing, notes that e-newsletter content should be 90 percent educational and 10 percent promotional. At Tolles, our monthly e-newsletter, Ignite, certainly promotes student success and various events, but also serves as a place to educate about career-technical education, along with business and industry partnerships. It also provides a community job board to our subscribers.
Your goals should center around a call to action. E-newsletters are effective at driving traffic to your website or to other online platforms. Make sure you provide an option for readers to click for more information, but don’t overdo it. Hubspot suggests that if you want people to RSVP or register for an event, only push out one of those calls to action per e-newsletter.
Simplicity and Focus
What are you filling your e-newsletter with? Too much? Not enough? One thing social media and mobile technology have done is shorten attention spans. It’s no secret that email is most effective (for your goals and for your audience) when it is concise, visual and contains a call to action.
The goal of your e-newsletter should not be to stuff it with every bit of information available about what’s happening in your district. You cannot cover everything in your e-newsletter. Period. Instead, according to Hubspot, “Email, whether it’s a newsletter or not, needs one common thread to hold it together.”
Create a topic-based email newsletter so people know what to expect each time it’s released. If you’re in a large district, this might mean creating multiple e-newsletters that focus on what interests the various audiences you’re trying to reach. You could have an e-newsletter based on elementary topics or one for middle school, athletics, fine arts, ESL and so on.
Keep it Visual
Along those same lines, the content you choose for your focused and simple e-newsletters should be visual. This means using photos and even videos to tell your stories quickly. You don’t need an elaborate design, and copy should be minimal. Keep your newsletter free from clutter. Use strong photos, simple and powerful headlines, and graphic elements to reinforce your district’s brand.
Show Some Personality
Schools can be fun and witty, too. Often, we want to stick to that old institutional model with content that is matter-of-fact and technical. Your e-newsletter has to be engaging, so that means loosening up the status quo rules that might make you nervous about showing a personality. Let people see your humanity, and use the e-newsletter as an extension of your brand voice, which hopefully isn’t stale.
How can you show some personality? For Tolles, we have created Spotify playlists that tie into a monthly theme. Think about a “back to school” edition of your e-newsletter with a playlist of music that features popular tunes along that theme. Maybe you create a video content series that debuts each month first or exclusively in your e-newsletter. This gives people a reason to subscribe because they know they’ll see the content there first, and it also gives you a chance to create content with personality. Other ideas: incorporate Instagram photos (potentially crowd-sourced from staff, parents or students), run a photo contest or embed the “Tweets of the Month.”
Stay in Touch with Trends
Stay on top of trends in email marketing so you can adjust your design, content, subject lines and delivery strategies as people shift habits. Here are some good industry tips to know:
According to Mailchimp, the education and training industry has an average open rate on emails of 23 percent with an average click-through rate of 3 percent;
Remember that mobile phones will be the place more and more of your audience reads your e-newsletter. Make sure you’re using a service that is responsive and adaptive to both mobile phones and tablets.
There is a debate about subject lines. Hubspot claims “creative” works better, while Mailchimp’s research shows “boring” is better. Perhaps finding a balance is the solution. We stick with “to-the-point” at Tolles, but we also try to avoid ALL CAPS, exclamation points or keywords that will get the e-newsletter trapped in spam folders.
Yes, e-newsletters are “clicking” if you concentrate on readability and engaging readers when creating them. So don’t toss email into history’s trashbin with telephone landlines just yet.
Shane Haggerty is director of marketing and technology at Tolles Career and Technical Center in Plain City, Ohio. He can be contacted at shaggerty@tollestech.com. View copies of his e-newsletter Ignite.
The communications department was tasked with putting together a strategic plan to increase parent and community engagement, increase district volunteer opportunities and conduct a community‐wide campaign to expand academic privilege. The importance of a college education and influence regarding academic privilege begins in the home, which is where the strategic plan needed to target to be the most effective. HSD2 educates over 11,000 students and is one of the most socioeconomically and ethnically diverse districts in the Pikes Peak region (74% free and reduced lunch average). For maximum capacity and effectiveness, one program was developed to increase volunteer opportunities strictly targeting parents/guardians.
The Very Involved Parents (VIPs) program was created in‐house to promote and coordinate parent volunteer efforts at each school with an academic focus. In April 2011, each school had at least 3 to 6 parents who volunteered by making copies, baking goods, assisting in the cafeteria or purchasing extra supplies for the classroom. The goal of the VIPs program was to increase parent volunteers to 10 to 20 parents and to utilize volunteers for a more academic purpose to instill the district’s philosophy of academic privilege. Each school in the Harrison District has one Very Involved Parent Coordinator who receives an outcomes‐based stipend related to parent engagement and volunteer opportunities. VIPs Coordinators are communication “foot soldiers” who are aligned with the district’s mission and message. Their purpose is to recruit parent volunteers, inspire and coordinate parent engagement in their school. Their secondary purpose is to assist the District communications office with rumor control, sense making and increase parent involvement in district committees and advisory groups.
Research
The communications team first began our research with a series of comprehensive brainstorming sessions to create the program purpose, measurable goals and a timeline for program development. Once the timeline for development was created, we met individually with each principal in our school district to determine the number of parent volunteers at the school. We learned how volunteers were utilized as well as successful and unsuccessful tactics used to promote parent involvement. We also needed to determine the specific goals of each school/principal so we could incorporate them into the plan for principal buy‐in. We then hosted five informal focus group meetings with parents: two elementary, two middle, and one high school. The purpose of the focus group meetings was to discover preferred communication methods for parents and their motivation for engaging or volunteering with their child’s school.
In April 2011, a third party survey company conducted a phone survey to over 400 community members and one question was asked to help us determine words and phrases to use for our academic privilege pursuit with our parent volunteers. (When you hear the phrase “College or Career Readiness,” what does that mean to you?) Finally, we held meetings with Pikes Peak United Way and Colorado Springs School District 11 to learn about the necessary volunteer policies, procedures and processes to assist us in developing the systemic nuts and bolts of our program. Pikes Peak United Way offered their research and literature on attracting, motivating and recruiting volunteers. Based on our research findings we tailored the goal and objectives to meet the parental engagement needs of the district schools.
Planning
Goal: To increase parent involvement at an academic level through a coordinated parent volunteer program at each school.
Objective I: To recruit one parent from each school, selected by the principal, to attend a two‐day leadership training to become the VIPs program coordinator for their school.
Objective II: To increase the total number of parent volunteers in the district from 30 to 200 by May 2012. This would be an increase from 3 to 6 parents to 10 to 20 parent volunteers per school.
Target Audience: Parents/guardians
Strategies
Objective I:
Develop criteria for VIPs coordinators to assist principals with recruiting one parent from their school to attend the leadership training.
Develop a curriculum for the two‐day leadership training in collaboration with the Center for Creative Leadership to motivate and educate VIPs coordinators with key leadership skills.
Develop a curriculum for the afternoon consisting of communication and sense making strategies to develop our VIPs coordinators into “message foot soldiers” for the district as well as educate them on volunteerism, district initiatives and the importance of parent involvement.
Develop a strong network with the VIPs coordinators so they can stay connected, share ideas and become advocates for the district.
Objective II:
Develop a pay scale to pay monthly, outcomes‐based stipends to VIPs coordinators for their efforts. Ensure principal support of the VIPs coordinator with work space and resources in each school.
Train VIPs coordinators to motivate and recruit parents, as well as train coordinators on the volunteer application process to follow district policies and guidelines.
Communication/Implementation
Developed the logo and slogan for the VIPs program.
Attended the Principals’ Meeting in September to present program to principals and how the program will benefit the schools.
Coordinated the mandatory training for all 19 VIPs coordinators (one from each school) on October 15 and 22 (full-day Saturdays).
Invited instructors from the Center for Creative Leadership to conduct leadership training each morning session.
Provided training on effective communication strategies; sense making skills (on the difference between a Parent Teacher Organization and the VIPs Program); how to recruit and motivate parent volunteers; and how to develop academic volunteer opportunities with teachers and the principal.
Conducted brainstorming sessions at the end of each day for VIPs coordinators to brainstorm creative ideas and specific action plans for recruiting parent volunteers.
Assembled a tool kit consisting of business cards, a planner, an official badge, volunteer packets and materials for each coordinator.
Scheduled mandatory follow up meetings each month for additional training, to turn in time sheets, share ideas, answer questions and address rumors and concerns.
Assigned first project: each VIPs coordinator must recruit 20 parents (earned $10 per parent) from their school to attend the free VIPs Program Kick‐Off Luncheon where the Superintendent presented the new five‐year plan and district initiatives to parents and stakeholders in audience.
Attended school staff meetings and provide training to principals, teachers and front desk staff on volunteer forms, handbook, tracking, opportunities/requests, application process and Parent Academy Workshop Series for parents.
Revamped volunteer contract for 2011‐2012 school year. All district volunteers must have a background check and be fingerprinted.
Created web site for parents to inquire about volunteer opportunities and sign up to become a volunteer as well as links on all school websites.
Developed volunteer tracking sheet.
Developed volunteer handbook.
Developed the Parent University workshop series for VIPs coordinators to recruit parents to attend to increase engagement and academic privilege. Parent University is one night every month where dinner and childcare is provided for parents to attend and learn about topics such as homework help, college readiness, budgeting, mental/behavioral health issues in children, etc.
Developed a pay scale to pay monthly outcomes‐based stipends to VIPs coordinators for their efforts. VIPs coordinators can be paid for: attending the monthly meeting $20; recruit parents/families to attend district and school functions $20; develop a monthly parent recognition program for parents who volunteer $20; host a table at school events to recruit parents $50; and write a monthly column for the school/parent newsletter about the VIPs program $10, etc. Maximum earned per month is $250.
Instilled a sense of leadership and initiative for coordinators to develop their own recruitment methods and outcomes for a small stipend.
Ordered t‐shirts and specialty advertising items to hand out to parents who become volunteers to promote messages.
Recognized volunteers, VIPs Coordinators and Leadership Academy attendees at end of year event in May 2012.
Evaluation
In conclusion, the VIPs program has proven to be an effective program for increasing parent involvement and engagement. Objective I was achieved, as 19 parents completed and graduated from the training and have become successful coordinators and messengers in their buildings. The VIPs Program Kick‐Off Luncheon had 580 parents and stakeholders in attendance, the largest attendance the district has ever had for a stakeholder luncheon. For a low income at‐risk district such as Harrison, parent engagement is a major task and the district has created a strong foundation for parent involvement in the first year of the VIPs Program.
Objective II was also achieved: in January 2012, the district went from 30 parent volunteers to 200. As of February 22, there are 235 very involved parents throughout the district, which continues to increase. While some schools have more volunteers than others, the average number is 10 parent volunteers in each building. The VIPs coordinators have built the capacity for parents to volunteer at an academic level where they feel involved, valued and like they belong to something important. All parent volunteers must fill out an application and pass a background check. Volunteer hours are now being tracked at each school; and some schools have established a “parent of the month” recognition program where parents are recognized in the school/parent newsletter and at student award ceremonies. Many of the VIPs coordinators work in a location in the school dedicated for the VIPs Program with a bulletin board where volunteer opportunities are posted and parent volunteers can collaborate.
Naturally, our elementary schools have more parent involvement than middle and high schools, however the VIPs coordinators have developed small groups of effective parents at the middle and high schools. For elementary, parents are now completing these types of volunteer activities: reading groups and centers, after school tutoring, making flash cards, fundraising for new technology and college visit field trips, and recruiting more parents to volunteer. For middle and high schools, parents are volunteering in these ways: after school for tutoring, chaperoning college visit field trips, fundraising for new technology, and assisting students with applying to colleges, filling out Individual Career and Academic Plans and FAFSA forms. The communications department has called on the VIPs coordinators on many occasions to help gather parent focus groups, recruit parents to serve on committees and advisory boards. The 2011‐2012 school year was the first year of the VIPs program and we will continue to strengthen the program in the 2012‐2013 school year and possibly expand to serve in another capacity within the district.
Contact: Heather Lenard, outreach and recruitment specialist hlenear@hsd2.org
Key Communicators are people who are active in the community. They have many connections in the community, speak often to various people in the community who are trusted and widely regarded for their leadership and input. Key Communicators might be local business owners, retirees, parents, or community members. They are sincere dedicated people who want to be involved and care about our schools. The concept of key communicators, I believe, was developed by Dr. Rich Bagin, Executive Director of the National School Public Relations Association.
