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Home > Blogs > Springfield Schools News and Issues > Archives > 2008 > July > 17 > Entry
Schools and communication
In three years of covering education, I’ve been the primary reporter for 15 public school districts and worked with about 10 other districts occasionally.
Communications is one of the most common complaints in almost all of these districts — rural, suburban and urban, rich and poor.
In today’s paper, I wrote about Springfield City Schools’ decision to contract with a local marketing consultant firm after about three years without a communications director due to budget woes. Over the next six months, Kaleidoscope, Inc. will develop and implement communication strategies for the district. The district will pay the company $14,000 over the life of the contract.
That’s a bargain. Springfield is one of only two urban school systems in the state that does not have a communications position. Having someone on staff would run the district anywhere from about $35,000 to $70,000 in salary, plus the cost of benefits.
It’s difficult to estimate how common it is for districts to have someone on the payroll responsible for communications specifically because those positions do not require a license. I’d estimate at least one-third of the districts in Ohio have a communications officer.
Typically, that person would be responsible for press releases, answering media questions, community relations like newsletters, internal communications with staff and, in some districts, marketing.
Twenty years ago, communications was much simpler for districts and a lot of systems didn’t have need for a communications officer.
Not anymore. Taxpayers and parents are holding schools accountable for results and spending more than ever before. Good communication is crucial for district’s to get the community’s support.
Yesterday I talked to Karen Kleinz, associate director of the National School Public Relations Association, who said that stakeholders are demanding more communication today.
“Technology’s making it so much easier for people to communicate so that has also added a whole new level to what we do in communications,” she said.
And while technology is certainly a major force behind the call for more and better communication, there’s more at work here than just that.
• Accountability — With No Child Left Behind and state report cards, accountability has changed drastically in the last couple decades. Residents know more about school performance now (at least in terms of data and achievement indicators) than ever before. With more knowledge, there are more questions and more scrutiny.
• School choice — One of the primary reasons for school choice is to create a competitive market in education with the goal of improving the product in order to be competitive with other systems. In Ohio, we have vouchers for private schools, charter schools, career tech programs, open enrollment and online programs all competing to attract students.
Private, charter and career tech schools often market themselves through advertising and mailings. In districts that are a highly-competitive market — typically urban school systems — public schools have to try to attract and maintain those students as well.
Before school choice, most students attended the public district in which they resided. Today, there are about 38,000 students in career tech programs, 2,200 using EdChoice vouchers and 81,000 at charter schools. That’s out of about 1.8 million students in Ohio.
• Parental involvement — Studies show that student achievement is tied to parental involvement in their child’s education. Regular communications at every level — teacher-to-parent, principal-to-parent and central office administration-to-parent — encourages more active participation from parents.
• Reaching the majority — In most communities, the majority of residents (up to as high as 80 percent) don’t have children in the district. It’s easier for schools to communicate with parents through their student with letters sent home or mailings. Ideally, parents would take the time to look over anything their child brings home.
Engaging the other parts of the community can be a challenge, especially if they don’t have a vested interest in the school system’s success. And with those groups making up more than 80 percent, they could easily be the majority vote for a levy or bond issue.
• Funding — School systems are becoming more like businesses each day, particularly in regards to marketing. Many districts justify ideas to try to recapture students utilizing other choices by comparing the cost of those implementations to the increased state funding that comes with those students. For example, in Springfield’s case, the district is paying $14,000 for the public relations contract. It’s no secret the district is cash-strapped.
If the resulting communications plan brought three students to the district those students would bring about $17,000, covering the cost of the contract. Although there could be some other costs such as paper or postage, any additional students would also bring more state funding.
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