WORKSHOP

School Communication Plan Development

Project Overview

To create a more consistent level of communications throughout Woodland Public Schools at the school level, the district’s Communications Contractor, Eric Jacobson, created a plan using research and analysis of existing school communications as well as most requested information. The project took place over the course of summer 2022 prior to the start of the 2022-23 school year.

Sample Documents for Board Review

The included documents will provide the Board of Directors with more detailed insights into how the communications plan was developed and why it targets the information it does:

• AUDIT – School Communications Review
  A Communications Audit provides an in-depth review of how schools communicated with their communities during the 2021-22 school year. Newsletters, websites, and social media were reviewed to determine the strengths and weaknesses of each school’s approach. The resulting information provides guidance on what worked and what did not work so each school could be put on the right path.
• RESEARCH – Most Popular Site Searches
  Using Google Analytics, a free statistical platform Google offers which allows school districts to review the most popular pages and searches on their websites, a series of most popular searches across woodlandschools.org was performed to determine the content visitors are searching for most often. This content was then prioritized in creating the School Communications Plan to ensure the community receives the information they’re most likely to need and visits the website to find.
• COMMUNICATIONS PRACTICES SAMPLE – Newsletter
  In the same way that the district uses Business Practices documents to help instruct and guide staff on the proper approach to handling tasks, a series of Communications Practices were created so new and existing staff could easily find guidelines for proper approaches to communication. In addition to the included sample focusing on Newsletters, Communications Practices have been created for School Calendars, Events, Roles & Responsibilities, Social Media, and the new TalkingPoints two-way communications platform (in development).
• COMMUNICATIONS CALENDAR SAMPLE – August
  Instead of requiring staff at each school to keep track of important events or develop content for newsletters, the Communications Manager will create and provide a detailed outline of all tasks and expectations for all members of the Communication Team, which will be emailed directly to the appropriate staff prior to the month the calendar covers. The included sample is the Communications Calendar for August and, in future years, will be provided to staff early in June so staff members can ensure all information for the new year is being provided to the community over the course of the summer, even when schools are not in session.
• LIVING DOCUMENTS: The documents are stored on a dedicated Google Shared Drive, and all Communications Team members have commenting privileges. This way, if a team member needs clarification, has constructive criticism, or brainstorms an interesting idea or approach, that feedback can be immediately added to the document and incorporated by the district’s admin team to enhance and improve communications in an ongoing approach.

Selection of a Two-Way Communications Platform - TalkingPoints

A top priority for school-level communications was to provide consistency in how parents and guardians interact with their student(s) teachers. Throughout the course of the Communications Audit, the administrative team learned that Woodland schools used a variety of different apps and software to interact with families.

While some of these platforms worked very well, the lack of guidance meant that families with students at more than one school in the district would experience very different approaches to communications in addition to having to track different apps and websites, making for a very confusing and often dissatisfying experience as parents tried to remember which way each school would communicate with them.

The district’s Communication Manager reviewed more than 20 different school communications products, including Alma, Bloomz, Class Dojo, Classcraft, Classtag, DreamClass, Edmodo, Gradelink, LearnZillion, ParentSquare, SplashLearn, Springring, TalkingPoints, and more.

Three stood out as finalists needing additional review: Class Dojo, ParentSquare, and TalkingPoints.

Class Dojo
Class Dojo was already being used at the elementary level with some success; however, the platform focuses on grades K-4, leaving the middle- and high-school grades to need a different solution. The administrative team decided having a single solution for K-12 was a pivotal part of reducing the confusion for the district’s families.

ParentSquare
ParentSquare provides a robust communications platform in addition to a wide variety of other modules and services. As a result, ParentSquare’s cost became a factor, and while it may be considered in the future, due to the timing of contract renewals, the district already renewed services ParentSquare could replace, presenting a situation where the district would be double-paying for similar services and making ParentSquare cost-prohibitive at this time.

TalkingPoints
TalkingPoints focuses entirely on school-level communications, allowing administrators and teachers to broadcast messages at a school, class, or group level while also providing two-way conversations between parents, students, and teachers or other school staff. 

Additionally, TalkingPoints provided a solution addressing five key priorities for the district:

• Security: TalkingPoints provides student data protections not included in Class Dojo.
  
  

• Record Retention: Schools must retain all records of communications between staff and students. Unlike Class Dojo, TalkingPoints offers an easy method to retain all records as required by the state.
  
  

• Equity: TalkingPoints uses a robust translation system relying on experts in every language supported by the platform to ensure the translation is both automatic and as accurate as possible. Unlike Google Translate, which can often include mistakes, the TalkingPoints is heuristic-based and constantly evolves while also including an academic glossary that defines terms and acronyms on-the-fly so all families can understand presented information in their native language.
  
  

• Unified and Common Platform for all grades and ages: Unlike Class Dojo, which focuses on elementary grades, TalkingPoints is well-suited to all grades, allowing the district to provide a single communications platform solution used district-wide.
  
  

Cost-Effective: TalkingPoints cost 60% less than ParentSquare, the other finalist. While ParentSquare will remain as a possibility should staff determine that its additional modules would be useful, TalkingPoints provides a thorough and effective solution to enhance school-level communications at a price point that permits the district to maintain its dedication to being a responsible steward of taxpayer dollars.