Communicating on a peanuts budget: A school district doesn't need a large staff to connect with parents and community

School Administrator, Feb, 2003 by Albert E. Holliday

Close to Home

* Inform the closest audience first.

Your closest and a most important audience is your own staff and board members. A superintendent must take special efforts to be sure that staff members are the first to know of matters that affect them and their schools. A modest staff newsletter for all certified and support staff is essential for any size district and for large schools. Informing staff and board members first is a major sign of trust and confidence in them, and that level of trust will be reflected in the comments that employees pass along to their friends and neighbors about the schools and people in charge.

* Participate in a community newsletter.

In some communities, officials of the school district can work with officials of their city or town to produce a joint newsletter for residents. A monthly newsletter can serve as a primary source of news and feature material about people and their activities in the community and in schools.

In locales served by a regular commercial newspaper that goes to a majority of residents, staff members might be encouraged to contribute articles, columns and photographs to the editor on a periodic basis.

* Let others help.

Trained volunteers can be useful and productive in many settings. The way to make the program work is to match willing volunteers who possess necessary skills with staff members willing to work with outsiders (other than paid part-time aides, for example). You will need a supervisor or coordinator, and that person might be a volunteer too.

How does a school leader obtain volunteers? Ask, ask, ask. (Many able people would never speak up to volunteer, for fear they would be rejected.) Lots of folks will respond to a request to work in a school setting, provided they are asked and given support. Be sure to sponsor an annual volunteers' recognition lunch or dinner each year as a thank you.

Climate Analysis

* Plan structured involvement of parents.

Parent involvement can be minimal or extensive. At a minimum, each parent should have a structured and cooperative working relationship with a teacher of that parent's child. It could be a written document, such as a student-teacher-parent learning contract--a device that has been especially helpful for a student who has had difficulty in school.

The biggest challenge is to find ways for parent-teacher contacts at the secondary level. This is a critical period in students' lives, and teachers and parents need to work closely for students' success. (You can be sure that operators of private schools find appropriate ways to maintain excellent relations with parents of high school-aged children.)

* Conduct audits of school climate.

School climate sets the tone for creative human performance. The climate can be positive or negative and can be measured. You need to find ways to assure that mutual respect, honest communication, positive self-concepts and effective human relationships exist among teachers, students and administrators in each school. The people who go to school every day ought to have reasons to look forward to the experience.