Five ways to engage your school community with technology-based communication

Key points:

Schools and districts across the country are learning that effective communication with families is more important than ever. Unfortunately, developing a communications plan requires a lot of time and resources, especially if the approach is fragmented and disjointed.

For best results, a strategic district communications plan should identify key stakeholders, the results you want to achieve with them, and the channels you will use for communication. This three-pronged plan will serve as a roadmap for your district's communications efforts.

If your district is ready for a new or renovated home-school communications plan, start by identifying your key stakeholders and objectives. You may want to conduct a communications audit or survey to understand how stakeholders want to reach you and what types of communications they want to receive.

Next, make sure everyone can understand the messages you send. For many schools in the United States, English is not the first language of many students and families. The most successful districts take this into account and understand the value of equitable and accessible communications.

Once this foundation has been established, here are five ways to engage your school community with technology-based communication:

1. Build your district brand.
Your district brand is an intangible concept that can be your secret weapon. Done well, it will set you apart by establishing loyalty with staff and families, strengthen your reputation to assist in student and faculty recruitment, and increase alumni and community support. The brand should be at the top of your mind at all times when creating content. Permanent signage, promotional materials, social media posts, website content, presentations, and even letterheads and envelopes should be branded.

Because brand consistency is incredibly important for all of your public documents, don't overlook what school staff and teachers send home, too. Parent Square As a platform for secure, unified communication between school and home, you can set up brand colors and even logos for your district to use. Users can also create templates for newsletters and forms.

2. Choose a communication frequency.
Will you send monthly newsletters to families and staff? Distribute community mailers quarterly? Clearly defining a schedule will help you stay on track. Include both regular communications such as monthly newsletters and annual articles such as back-to-school information. Identify who is the sender of each piece and develop an ideal cadence so as not to bombard stakeholders with multiple or repetitive communications.

3. Evaluate your communication channels.
Since each stakeholder has their own preferences for how, where, and when they want to receive communications, you can use multiple communication channels to “layer” your district's message.

Start with an open discussion with your district leadership team about best practices in your school community. What works well for you? Where do you see the greatest commitment? Where do they have difficulty connecting? It's helpful if you can create your message once and easily share it across multiple channels with your school-home communications platform, allowing you to send those messages to your social channels and website.

4. Show your audience the wonderful things that happen in your classrooms every day.
Look for stories in your district, schools, and classrooms that capture the emotion you want to convey with your brand. Tell the stories of your students and staff, sharing their accomplishments and emphasizing positive relationships. The most successful stories will focus on topics that are important to their audience.

If you're trying to reach parents and guardians at your high school, for example, you might want to find a strong story about a student who used the services of their school or district to better prepare for a career after graduation. For elementary families, a story featuring a fun project from an art or STEM class could have a big impact.

5. Be prepared to address crisis communications.
Most districts have a committee that focuses on safety and emergencies. If yours does, we recommend attending committee meetings to ensure communications are part of the discussion. If not, work with the rest of the leadership team to establish one. This team will be responsible for evaluating current emergency plans and filling any communication gaps.

Our district takes a proactive approach to emergency preparedness by maintaining a Google document with pre-written statements for different scenarios. By preparing these statements in advance, we can streamline the response process and ensure that everyone receives accurate and consistent information when it is needed, whether for a shutdown, evacuation, weather-related scenarios, or any other important situation.

Being prepared to respond effectively and efficiently is an important part of crisis communications, but it is not the only approach. Once the crisis is over, it is important to continue communicating with the community with the aim of showing a “positive front” after an urgent situation.

Foster a connected learning community

Finally, don't forget about your go-to communication resource: your district website.

The mission of the site should be twofold: share necessary information with interested parties and showcase your district to attract new families and staff. Your district website and social media accounts should target several different audiences, including your key stakeholders, as well as potential employees, new families, and community members.

By bringing everyone together on a single, unified platform, K-12 districts can ditch their newsletters, phone calls, and emails in favor of a more cohesive approach. With the help of technology, districts can close communication gaps and foster a connected learning community.