Communications Plan

Name of school: Great Hieghts HighProject team: Mr. Blank (Principal), Ms. Smith (PTO), Mr.

Ringer (PR), Ms. Wire (Technology Director), Joe Bagadonuts (Student Council)

Date: April 13, 2010

Background and Scope

• Current Communication Tools– Paper News Letters (monthly)– School Website (random)– Email (Teacher/Parent)

• After completion of a communication audit the findings were as follows– Need for more up to date information (website)– Quicker means of communication– Multi-medium communication

Setting Objectives

• Strengthen communication between schools and families

• Increase community members knowledge of school news

• Strengthen parent/caregiver participation in school

• Increase use of technology within communication with parents, students, and community members

School Goals

• Increase integration of technology for 21st century learners

• Increase % of students to pursuit post secondary education

• Increase technology literacy with faculty, students, and parents

Objectives (Communications)• Why do you want to communicate to your audience? Is it to: raise the profile of the school in

the local community;• develop relationships with local businesses; enhance students career prospects; or encourage

parents to read the• newsletter more often?• Naturally, it is difficult to do everything at once, so keep your objectives realistic. The best

communications plans• have no more than four objectives.• These might include:• • increase your school enrolments• • change public perceptions of your school• • change the media’s perceptions of your school• • establish a network of advocates for your school• • strengthen parent/caregiver participation at your school• • establish a new identity for your school• • improve student attendance• • improve your teacher retention rate.

Target Audiences

• Existing Parents and Students of the system – GHSD• Families who are considering the GHSD for their

children, and those who may have opted out of GHSD for other educational opportunities

• Current staff and partners working to improve the schools

• Teaching candidates and other potential employees• The general public – citizens, taxpayers, opinion

leaders, and employers

Key Messages

• Highly qualified professional and support staff in key areas

• State of the art facility with up to date technology

• Community with strong family and community support

• Programs that prepare students for independence and entrance into college

Evaluation Plan

• Surveying the school community with a questionaire

• Measuring the increase in participation with parents

• Interviewing parents at parent-teacher night• Tracking visits to the internet site

Budget

• We will dedicate 5% of the technology budget to increase communication.

• This will be a high priority of the technology department.

Issues/Risks

• Strengths– Highly qualified and

experienced staff– Offer students broad

subject choice– We have networked

computers in each classroom

• Weaknesses• Weak test scores• We could improve

communication with parents

• We could improve our communication with local media

Issues/Risks

• Opportunities– We could build upon

our supportive local school network

– We could attract new students by targeting newly arrived families in our area

Threats• The local population

is changing and there are fewer households with school age children

• We could encourage greater parent involvement in school

Objective 1 Action Plan

• Strengthen communication between schools and families– Each building will have its own blog with weekly to

daily updates– Implement an automated school calling system,

like Connect-ED

Objective 2 Action Plan

• Increase community members knowledge of school news– Update website at least weekly– Add news ticker to current website– Create facebook page

Objective 3 Action Plan

• Strengthen parent/caregiver participation in school– Text notification of upcoming events– Listserv to notify parent of opportunities of

volunteering

Objective 4 Action Plan

• Increase use of technology within communication parents, students, and community members– Investigate school-wide purchase of student

database for parents to access student grades, assignments, etc.

– Increase instruction with mobile technology