Designing a Public Relations Plan

What does your school or district want to achieve with its public relations program? To increase enrollment? To generate support for school reform? To counteract negative media publicity? To help reluctant or overworked parents learn how to help their child succeed? Worthy goals, but first, before sending any information out, take some in. What issues are people concerned with? What complaints do they have? What impressions (right or wrong) do they hold of the public schools? Only when a school has determined its community's concerns, formed an answering strategic plan, and developed a public relations strategy will its public relations output find its best mark. The following public relations steps can help a school or district determine what is important to the people in its community.

1. Find out what the public is saying.

• What do the polls say? In 1999,the annual Public Attitudes Toward the Public Schools poll (Rose and Gallup, 1999) showed that 98 percent of respondents chose the quality of the teaching staff as the most important factor they would use to select a school, if choice was unlimited. Other factors important to public school partners are student discipline and curriculum, each at 89 percent; and class size, at 75 percent. Poll data like these are free, easily obtained, and provide a great starting point for public relations. For example, a district could give its partners specifics on the high quality of its teaching staff; it could hold a community forum on discipline; it could regularly spotlight a spectacular teacher or an innovative project. All of these directly address the public's -its partner's- concerns.

• Ask existing users. Current public school parents were once newcomers to the school system. Ask them what their initial impressions of the school and district were, positive and negative. With the increasing choice parents have for their children's education, a bad first impression can mean a lost student (revenue lost), and a lost set of parents and two sets of grandparents (potentially six votes in support of public education lost). Whatever negative first impressions current parents once received, make sure incoming parents do not. Ask these veteran parents what their ideal public school would look like.

• Take your own polls, and turn the data into information that gets used. One Illinois elementary school district paid a professional research company $4,500 for a survey of students, teachers, and parents. The findings: students wanted more meaningful homework, staff wanted stronger support from principals, and parents wanted more say in the selection of teachers. The district's superintendent said he got the message and is using the information to make changes. He plans a follow-up poll in two years to assess the district's progress (Walsh, 1996).

• Meet with business leaders. School administrators must get out of their offices and visit owners and managers of their community's industries and services. Ask what their skill requirements are, and build a personal relationship with them (NSPRA, n.d./b).

• Seek out the non-users. "Focus groups are a wonderful way to get very concrete opinions," says the community relations manager of a Washington district. "You cannot make assumptions about how people think" (Bradley, 1996). Hold a focus group of private school parents: Why didn't they choose public schools? What changes might make them reconsider? What elements do their private schools provide that the public schools don't? Ask business people if entry level workers have the skills they require. What improvements can schools make to help create a generation of concerned, skilled, and informed citizens?

2. Have a strategic plan for your school or district

Before press releases are written or coalitions formed, a school or district must have an overall strategic plan, separate from its public relations plan. One large urban district, after being criticized for a lack of a coherent plan and struggling with a loss of credibility, threw out the old model of board members drafting a strategic plan within the safe confines of the boardroom. Instead, it held a series of public speak-out sessions to help it create a strategic plan. Every segment of society was invited: parents, teachers, students, administrators, government officials, clergy, business executives, union leaders, community activists, and school support staff. A core team then distilled the essence of these meetings into a draft plan that lays out the district 's mission, core values, objectives, and strategies. A district or school must have an internal strategic plan before its public relations and the subsequent marketing can be effective. The best public relations in the world cannot hide incompetence or a lack of direction.

3. Form a public relations committee

The next step is to designate a public relations steering committee of parents, teachers, and as many other stakeholders as feasible. (Or delegate the public relations committee function to an existing group, like the school site council.) Of course, a trained communications, marketing, or public relations professional is the best way to ensure that public relations is handled efficiently. Lacking that resource, the job must be delegated to a group that has the resources it needs to educate itself about the public relations function, form public relations goals and objectives, plan strategies, and be accountable to school leadership. And, before the committee implements any public relations strategies, it should do some homework:

• Review the literature. An excellent resource is the National School Public Relations Association (NSPRA), which has books, periodicals, and videos on school public relations (see http://www.nspra.org). The United States Department of Education Web site (http://www.ed.gov) also offers information and links to explore.

• Read about what other schools are doing. A global search on the Internet or at sites such as Education Week (http://www.edweek.org) using school public relations key words (like public engagement, image marketing, public opinion, community relations, advertising, parental involvement, and public support) will lead to good examples of public relations in action in the public schools.

• Visit schools known to have a good public relations program. Larger school districts often have a dedicated public relations professional with a title like "Director of Communications and Community Involvement," or "Community Relations Manager." Ask your state 's Department of Education to point you toward successful schools you can visit and learn from.

4. Turn the data into a public relations plan

With all the valuable information it has accumulated, a school can plot its public relations plan. How will it address the community's concerns? Which strategies will it employ to show the community that its priorities are being addressed? Which techniques can be used to counter common misconceptions? Which events can be planned to enhance perceptions? Which strategies will be effective with which market segments? The next section will discuss specific public relations strategies. It is important to remember that public relations strategies should not be reserved for a "public relations campaign." They must become a way of life. Every small action creates a positive experience that comes back when it is time to garner support for school improvement efforts or ballot measures.