Our team at ExcellenceK12 has worked with many school districts on research projects. We have seen similar issues and themes come up in our findings.
Specifically, when we ask “grading questions” in school district surveys, the following topic areas rise to the top:
– Communications
– Involving citizens in the life of the district
– Value received by residents for the tax dollars spent
In this article, we’ll tackle communications.
You should know “lack of communications” is an issue for districts of all sizes. We work with many large districts that have robust communications departments that still struggle to provide as much timely and meaningful communications as their patrons want. And, we work with very small districts where patrons feel like they never hear anything from the district.
There are only four things you can achieve in communications: Reach, Frequency, Impact and Continuity. (Refer to graphic.)
Reach is the total number of people you contact one time.
Frequency is the total number of times you reach one person.
Impact is amount of “reaction” you get from your communications effort.
Continuity is the total number of days in a month or year when you have exposure.
The most important thing to realize is simply this: If you increase reach and impact, you decrease frequency and continuity. The reverse also holds true.
If you choose to do a parent newsletter on a weekly basis, you will get a lot of frequency and continuity with that one audience, but you will miss out on patrons, staff, etc., thus limiting your reach and impact. It’s important to consider you need all four outcomes in a balanced plan to provide a broad spectrum of communications to all your patrons and stakeholders.
You might consider doing a quarterly newsletter mailed to all patrons (reach), coupled with a monthly newsletter emailed to all staff, students and parents (continuity), and adding in a weekly “notes of note” email (frequency). Combined, these three efforts will give you impact — and you can determine the reaction you wish to see — click-throughs, attendance at events, inquiries for information, etc.
Look for the “holes” in these four areas in your communications. Adjust and you’ll see better communications with all your patrons.
