Clarification, 5/12: The $19,000 for the “Let’s Talk” program is a recurring, annual cost, not a one-time expense, according to Malespina.
The following is an opinion piece submitted by Elissa Malespina. Formerly the librarian at South Orange Middle School, Malespina is currently the Coordinating Supervisor of Educational Technology for the Parsippany Troy Hills School District and is a Bammy Award Winning Librarian who specializes in “telling your story through 21st century technology.”
Lack of communications is a huge issue in our district. From staff and administrators not responding back to parents in a timely matter, to it taking over a month for a flyer to be approved, communication in our district needs an overhaul!
I was asked to come and consult with the district, on ways to use Social Media and other tools to help to tell the district’s story. This is a topic that I speak about nationally. When I spoke to the [Board’s] Community Engagement & Outreach Committee in March, I outlined some of the numerous ways that we are not communicating with all of the stakeholders and showed examples of districts that are doing it well. I also offered advice and free or very low cost tools that could help to fix some of the many issues we have as a district.
You can view my presentation here: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1owR4U7oMFXo6tbdkh7AfMXSDzjm0hw17wFeWzp9pjcA/edit?usp=sharing
So far none of my suggestions have been implemented.
When I saw that the “Let’s Talk” program was up for a vote at the board meeting last Monday, I reached out to Johanna Wright, chair of the committee, to ask her more about this program. She told me had no knowledge of this program and it had not been discussed in a committee meeting.
You would think that if the district was planning to spend $19,000 on a communication program they would have gone through the process of looking at all the available tools, and speaking with the committee prior to purchasing it. That seems to not be the case.
Since I had never heard of Let’s Talk, I reached out to my friends who have written books on effective communication in school districts to see if they had heard of it. The response I got back from one of the leaders in the field was, “I am not sure why a district or school would use this when there are free tools available to do this.”
The points that the district spokeswoman made in the article about the Let’s Talk program sound good, and are things we need to address. But know that all these things can be done for free, or with a reduced amount of money, if you have in place a good strategic communications plan.
Here are those points the district made about the program, followed by my responses and questions in bold:
- Provides a portal for stakeholders to use to submit a question, complaint, request, suggestion, or any other comment for the administration or the Board; – Have we looked at using Google forms or Google voice, or Speakpipe.com which lets you receive voicemails from your audience right from your website?
- Encourages input from a larger number of community members, including the often silent majority, to help the district plan and improve; – The company says that they will do this through the use of surveys. The district can do the same thing using Google Forms or Survey Monkey, which they already have an account with.
- Integrates conversations and input about district issues through a wide variety of sources – such as email, phone calls, meetings, social media, and one-to-one conversations – and helps staff address concerns at the early stages; – As you can tell from the presentation I gave above, I talked about ways to use social media and more to address concerns at the early stages.
- Provides a systematic, effective way to respond to staff, parent and other stakeholder contacts, ensuring that every comment goes to the appropriate staff member(s) and tracking all responses to each comment, including timeliness; – The problem we have in our district is not that the appropriate staff members don’t get the comments from stakeholders, it is that they don’t address them in a timely manner. That will not change without a culture shift in our district, a shift that holds staff and administration more accountable for their lack of communication. In the Danielson Framework for Teachers model, staff is evaluated on Family and Community Engagement. I cannot say the same for administration.
- Tracks all contacts in a way that provides summary information to help district staff monitor trending topics, address rumors, and identify and respond to emerging issues earlier in the process. – This should already be happening. We employ a Director of Strategic Communications that should be doing this.
While the “Lets Talk” program looks great and may be a wise choice for some districts, I do not feel that we should be spending an extra $19,000 on this program when we have someone in place that can do the majority of the things that this program can do. With the budget as tight as it is, with teacher positions being cut, with Seth Boyden parents begging for money for field trips, this money can be better spent elsewhere.
As I previously mentioned in my speech to the board, I have no problem coming back and speaking to them about other options. It saddens me when I see just how poorly we do as a district communicating and if my knowledge and expertise can help to fix the problem, then I am more than willing to help do that. I want our district to be the best it possibly can be.
We deserve better than this!
