001Hello, school board. We are here today to share with you how we created a new three-year strategic communications plan. We will share a look back at the last three-year plan and then also the evaluation and input used to create this next plan. We are excited to share the work with you. I'm Patty Lux Mills and I'm the director of communications and engagement for the district. And I'm Adam Mum. I am the multimedia and website strategist. and together we are going to share this strategic work with you. So why does a school district have a strategic communications plan? Not only does our OE9 our operating operating expectation require it, it also ensures that we are aligned with the community's expectations and it also keeps us focused on the big picture. We had several elements that informed
002the building of this plan and they're listed here. But in summary, there were our operating expectations. We looked at we looked at our equity and strategic plans. We looked at the audit and committee committee feedback. We looked at best practices from Wispra and NSPRA, which are our national and Wisconsinbased public relations associations. We looked at public relation trends. We looked at local and global trends and also where our district wants to head in the next three years. As part of this process, we conducted a communications audit. This was a thoughtful self audit process to gauge the glows and grows of communications and engagement over the last three years. As part of that, we reviewed our just the plan. We just concluded our last three-year communication plan. As Patty and I have said, it is a
003guiding document for our strategic work, not just a simple to-do list. So, Patty and I meet monthly to go over the strategic plan and then monitor our progress towards it and we stoplight it as we complete the tactics within it. So, a link to our stoplit 2022 through 2025 communications plan is linked on this slide and it is in the board packet. The audit also included an inventory of current communication practices and analytics of our communications tools. So this determines what tools and strategies we as a district and the schools within our district are using to engage with families and then the effectiveness of those. We also created and conducted a communication survey for our families, staff, high school students, and community members. We had over a thousand survey responses that is statistically significant for
004a district of our size. And it was a really thoughtful process putting those together to make sure we were asking questions that helped us understand our community's expectations, where we're meeting them, and where we can get better at that. And we also conducted student focus groups. Having the student perspective in this is very important, particularly for our high school students. As more is expected of our high school students, more is also expected of us as we continue to engage with them. So the audit is a very big document. So and we're just doing a short summary here, but you can find the full audit report linked on this slide and again in the board packet. So we gained many insights throughout the whole audit process. We received validation for several of our strategies and practices
005where we were told we were doing a good job and things that they liked. We also learned about where we have room to grow and like it's a lot of information that we can't boil down into one slide for you but we do have four key areas that we con that we considered after going through the audit these four recommendations. The first one is seeking to improve seeking opportunities to streamline communications. A common refrain we heard was that it can be a little overwhelming with the different tools and messages flying around throughout the year. Um, but we also did learn what families prefer as communications. Their top preferences include direct communications from teachers and staff and school and district newsletters. So part of streamlining communications is making sure those two strategies are being used to
006the most effective extent because that's where families are looking. Another area is improving transparency and trust. As you can see, we have a the survey responses indicated a 69% positive impression of our school district. that can be better and we and we are looking forward to trying strategies to improve that. Another area is continuing to improve our website. There are a lot of developments that have happened in web design since our website launched and there are new requirements, legal requirements about accessibility that will be required of us in the next couple years. So, we are going to look at ways to improve our website, including launching a new website sometime in 2026. And a common refrain in our district is continuing to grow our 2-way communication capacity. It's a continuing goal for us when and
007while we have made significant strides in the past three years, we still have room to grow. You see that 61% that say they feel they can easily share their perspectives with us. that can be better and we will be better. So that was the audit and that was review as part of this process that was reviewed by our communications committee and Patty will talk to you about that. We want to thank our communications committee. We had a group of very thoughtful partners that helped us in this work and you see the list and the names of the people here but we had staff, we had principal, we had a student and we had community members who helped lend their voice to this and we want to thank them. So over the last year in the
008communications office, we have been working with the International Association for Public Participation, IAP2. And so it's important to us that we move beyond the inform where we're just telling people about things. And with this committee, we were in the collaborate area. And so what that meant is that um this group we were looking to this group for recommendations and advice and they helped us truly develop the work within this plan. So I mentioned the four the four meetings. This is just a summary of the four meetings that we met um from March to May. And there's keywords at key times for each of them. But really this group they were these were all work groups. They were either reviewing something, evaluating something, um looking at data, asking questions, summarizing information, and helped they really helped
009us inform our recommendations for the strategic priorities for this new plan, which Adam's going to talk about. Thanks, Patty. So, like Petty said, the communications committee looked at all the audit and survey results and existing documents and came up with themes that translated into these eight strategic priorities. Before I go into those strategic priorities, it is important to note that equity remains a foundational thread woven throughout our work and this communications plan and you'll see that illustrated in a sample of part of the plan on the next slide. So the eight strategic priorities include ensure accessibility and equity in all communications and engagement. That means we need to deliver inclusive, easy to understand, multimodal content that meets families where they are. Also, we need to build and sustain trust. There's a growing demand for genuine
010and transparent communication. As a communications team and as a district, we need to focus on delivering clear, honest messages that position us as the most reliable, transparent, and proactive source of district information. Deliver relevant, personalized, and effective communications. We need to streamline communication tools and tailor messages to family, school, and student level needs. strengthen two-way communication and engagement. We need to make it easier and more meaningful for families and stakeholders to share their voice and feel heard. Connect the community to our schools. That's the 70% of our community that don't have kids in our schools and have that easy connection. So, we need to showcase the value of public education and deepen our community school partnerships. We need to elevate internal communication and employee engagement. That means fostering a strong internal culture through purposeful, timely,
011and clear communication with our staff. We also need to strengthen our communication through training tools and strategy. Building long-term communications excellence through staff training, new tools, and public relations strategies. And we need to build parent, caregiver, family engagement and belonging. It's a way to strengthen trust and build meaningful relationships with families from historically underserved and diverse populations by co-creating inclusive communication and engagement strategies that reflect their voices, needs, and cultural identities. So those are the aid strategies that were given to us by the communications committee. But what does that look in practice? Well, as you can see here, this is a sample of strategic priority number three. Um, there's more than five tactics, but this is one page for you. So, on the top is is the strategic priority that was given to us from
012the committee. Underneath are the tactics. These were developed by Patty and myself, the district's communications team. These are the best practices we think will help us achieve the strategic priority given to us by our community via the committee. So you see the tactics listed in the left column. In the next column we is how we as a team are going to make sure we are always thinking about how the tactics advance the equity work of the district. The next column over is the action steps which and these we'll fill in as we go. The action steps are drilling into the specifics of how we will accomplish the tactics. And as we do our work, we want to make sure that we do it through the public relations practice of ARPA. So RPA RPI stands for
013research, planning, implementation, and evaluation. So that means doing solid databased research on the situation, coming up with a strategic plan based on that research, implementing that plan with fidelity, and then evaluating the effectiveness of that of the plan afterwards. In the next column, where applicable, we have evaluation and measurable objectives. So how that we can demonst how how we'll know that we are meeting our goals. The next column is timing. So Patty and I went through each tactic and determined based on strategy and feasibility where it would make sense to do it. And we divided it into each of the next three years into summer, fall, and spring and assigned each tactic to a different time period. And finally, stoplight, which we will fill in as we get going on it. Yeah, speaking of getting
014going on it, Adam, we are going to look at our next steps are going to be diving into those summer 2026 strategies and we'll begin to implement them. So, we're excited to get going with that work. Also, we had this great group, this communications committee, and we asked them at the end as a part of an evaluation process if they'd be interested in doing some more work with us. And overwhelmingly, they said yes. And so we will continue to see where we can tap on their shoulders to um you know look to them for some direction with some of our other our other pieces and of marketing materials and our work. So we're excited we're excited to get going and we're excited to continue to work with that committee um as we can. So if
015you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to Patty or myself. We will be at the board meeting on June 9th and we look forward to seeing you then. Thank you. Thank you.