Community Engagement
Communications & Community Engagement
2018-19 has been a year of new beginnings for the Charles City Community School District and the Communications & Community Engagement Department. With a new superintendent comes new directions, projects, and goals and the department has stepped up to meet and exceed our goals. To review the work that has been accomplished over the last year is rewarding and an incredible example the many ways we tell our story each day and the impact this department has on the students and community. Here how we engaged our stakeholders this year.
FRONT OF HOUSE: One of the core values rolled out by the senior leadership team in July of 2018 was the commitment that we will be invitational across our district. We partnered with the Central Rivers Area Education Agency to host customer service training for all of our front of house secretaries. We covered basics like the 10/5 rule, where our front of house staff acknowledges guests within 10 feet with a smile and eye contact and greeting people within a five-foot area. We standardized our phone greetings district-wide. We discontinued our automatic phone greeting system. A 24/7 emergency notification system was added to our evening automated attendant. Students recorded all of our after-hours recordings (it’s worth the after-hour phone call to 641-257-6570 to hear the announcement) and we offer coffee, branded water bottles, and an age-appropriate snack to our visitors. The department also worked with our front of house personnel to revamp our registration process. See the checklists in our exhibits.
STUDENT TOUR GROUPS: The next part of being invitational is showcasing our schools and our students. Our product is the best in the community, and we have reasons to showcase our kids and staff. As part of our invitational transformation, we replaced adult tours of our campuses with student tours and let our students tell our story. We used our District Talented & Gifted (TAG) program to coordinate training for our Comet Ambassadors and supported them with resources to present an authentic and professional experience for our new families and guests. It also allows our TAG program to identify students who may be gifted and talented in other areas that are not typically recognized by the TAG program.
SWAG BAGS: When a new family or guest visits we want them walking away with something tangible to help them remember us. The items included in the bag include a Comet mug for each parent, a Comet tumbler for each student, Comet orange pens, breakaway Comet lanyards, tattoos, along with passes to the YMCA, and District data in a Comet orange folder.
BRANDING: We took a look at our campuses and concluded that although we created branding guidelines for the Charles City Community School District in 2015, we didn’t invest in implementing our branding beyond t-shirts and uniforms. Each of our buildings received a fresh look with the help of a local sign company. Our doors and entrances were wrapped with our marks, and our structures are all identifiable from the road. The high school building banner can be viewed from the Avenue of the Saints. New directional signage is visible around our single campus to direct our visitors to their destination. Our branding package was used and implemented across the district as a welcome to our schools.
REFINING OUR BRAND: The Communications and Community Engagement Department was named the clearinghouse for all branding related products in the District. We were able to give more details and clarify our brand standards this fall after some incorrect use over the last four years. The Department became the sole spot to have all branding approved by any activity or retail business in the community. We approve annual use of the logo for area businesses.
EXEMPLARY ENVIRONMENT: Lincoln Elementary School became an exemplary school to model for our other schools as to what we want the inside of our schools to look like. Teachers, students, and staff are the focus of art in the hallways. Our educational staff helped repaint the halls on their nights and weekends. Large photos of each of the grade levels were printed so every student would have a picture hanging in their school, including working with high school shop students to build our oversized frames. Comet Orange paint was used sparingly, but with intent, at the entrances to the building. A sensory hallway was added at the request of teachers. A data wall and mirror wall will be added yet this year. A sizeable 18-foot Comet was also added in the hallway to instill Comet pride in our students.
NORTH GRAND BUILDING SALE: One of the strengths that we lean into with the Department is our local government affairs relationships. A challenge in the community and District was the need for a new life for a 1931 school building that is on the national historic register. In July of 2018 District leadership prioritized this and together with Central Services staff, we found a developer willing to purchase the 87-year-old building and develop it into market-rate housing for the community. The department has coordinated the marketing of the building, tours, and discussions with the developer. Details like zoning, title work, and contracts were also coordinated through the Department. We anticipate a sale of the historical portion of the building by June 30, 2019. Construction is due to begin in 2021 with apartments opening in 2023.
WEEKLY NEWSLETTERS: After some parent feedback that indicted our parent – school communications were lacking we desired to change this in the 2018-19 school year. Each school building front-of-house staff coordinates a weekly newsletter with upcoming events and news for the week. The newsletter is a mobile friendly Google doc written by District teachers and edited by building front of house staff. It is reviewed, shared, and distributed by the Department on Sunday evening via text message and email. We have an astonishing 60% - 70% readership rate.
ONESIES: We wanted to plant a seed in the minds of all new families that the Charles City Community School District is their destination and your family is part of our family, so in 2019 we started sending each newborn their first Comet shirt with a signed notecard from the superintendent, elementary school principal, and the director of communications and community engagement. Our strategy is to have more student choose the Charles City Community School District over other educational options that are available to them in the community. We track new births via public records in our home county plus three other neighboring counties. The data is collected and used this year, and then we will be able to follow up with the parents in the next 18-48 months with information about the school district.
SNOW DAYS: Any Iowa school who doesn’t note the horrendous year of snow days in 2019 isn’t paying attention. The constant need for alerting parents to changes in weather moved from an occasional event to an event happening multiple times a week. We strengthened partnerships with local media through this process and refined our calling system. We also told the story of how we make snow day calls and how our senior leadership has the responsibility to establish and implement this decision are literally boots on the ground. We are proud to tell the story of our superintendent traveling roads at 6 a.m. and, after getting his vehicle stuck in a snow drift, canceling school because student safety comes first.
LISTENING POSTS: Our Charles City Community School District Board of Education is proud of the fact we make ourselves available to the community in a public setting outside of board meetings. We hold quarterly public listening posts where stakeholders can meet with board members, the superintendent of schools and the director of Communications & Community Engagement to ask questions, get answers, and raise important issues. This year we hosted listening posts at a community event, an area industry, and a local fast-food restaurant.
NEW SUPERINTENDENT ONBOARDING: Introducing and acclimating our newest top Comet to the District was a joint goal of the Department and the superintendent. Mr. Fisher’s goal of 100 community stakeholder interviews in 100 days was a high goal to meet the people of the community. Building principals met for two days to refine the Charles City Community School District – Way of Life. News interviews and community engagement events, public conversations, and one-on-one meetings were scheduled. The goal of 100 interviews was exceeded and today he is up to 170 interviews with staff and community members.
RUN OUTS: The Charles City Fine Arts Department wanted to share the gift of music with the community, so our Charles City High School band, choir, orchestra, Charles City Middle School band, and elementary school choirs worked with the Department to schedule 52 extra performances in the community in December of 2018. From nursing homes and senior centers to restaurants, coffee shops, and service clubs, our students showcased their talents while building good-will in the community. These groups accepted no donations for sharing their talents.
CAPITOL ADVOCACY: Building relationships and starting one-on-one conversations with freshmen legislators was the goal of a March advocacy day in Des Moines. Two high school students and the director of Communications & Community Engagement ventured to Des Moines to advocate for public education. This was the fifth year our District has engaged with legislators, and we changed our tactic to start building relationships for future years. We left an invitation for freshmen lawmakers to visit us in the off-season and talked with about 15 legislators in our visit to the state capitol. The day was coordinated through Charles City Communications & Community Engagement.
PLUS EVERYTHING ELSE: With all of these special projects there still is the day to day work, including alumni tours, storytelling on social media, twice-monthly weekly live interviews that air on local radio, regular tip sheets to news media, photography to accompany storytelling, website updates, recording all fine-arts concert for playback on local access cable, video recording school board meetings, interactions with students, interviews and news requests, and answering questions in the community about the District.