Administrator's Guide to School-Community Relations, The

George E. Pawlas

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781317922391
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Didattica
• Subtopic: Didattica generale

This large collection of handy ideas features easy-to-use tools, comprehensive checklists, and sets of "Do's and Don'ts" advisories. It provides guidelines on how to conduct effective parent conferences, suggestions on how to recruit and work with volunteers, and other useful tips to help bring your school and your community closer together.

1

Uncommon Ideas for Uncommon Principals

Why Use Uncommon Ideas?

♦ The uncommon ideas used at a school will help to gain support for the school and the learning program at the school.

♦ The extra effort needed to implement these uncommon ideas is often very little in comparison to the impact they will bring.

♦ It is better to be proactive than reactive. Why not be the principal who does what others agree is good but that they never do?

Although schools have their own uniqueness and similarities, there are specific ways the school principal can provide the leadership to make a school very special in the community. Through the use of some tried-and-true strategies that other successful principals have used, they can make their mark and put the school in the forefront of the community. To be effective, a well-developed school–community relations plan must be developed. The 10 components of such a plan are the following:

♦ Provide the people with information about their schools.

♦ Provide the school with information about the community.

♦ Establish and maintain public confidence in the schools.

♦ Secure community support for the school and its program.

♦ Develop a commonality of purpose, effort, and achievement.

♦ Develop in the community a recognition of the vital importance of education in our social and economic life.

♦ Keep the community informed of new trends and developments in education.

♦ Develop an atmosphere of cooperation between the school and other social institutions of the community.

♦ Secure an evaluation of the school’s program in terms of educational needs as the community sees them.

♦ Develop public goodwill toward the school.

The National School Public Relations Association (NSPRA) defines the efforts school principals must make as a planned, systematic, two-way process of communication between a school and its internal and external community through the use of interpersonal communication and mass media.

Goodwill Ambassadors for the Schools

Teachers, staff members, and students who are satisfied with their work and studies can be ambassadors of the school’s mission in their community.

The interactions the teachers, staff members, and students have through their interpersonal communications with members of the external public associated with a school. One-to-one communication is often the best way to convey messages and help to change opinions people may have.

For more than 30 years, the Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup Poll of the Public’s Attitudes Toward the Public Schools has revealed what Americans feel about public education. The 36th Annual Poll, which was released to the public in September 2004, contained the responses of 1,003 surveyed adults. One of the questions asked of those being surveyed was to grade the schools in their communities. The following chart reflects those responses:

Grading the Public Schools
	National Totals		No. of Children in School		Public School Parents
	2004 %	2003 %	2004 %	2003 %	2004 %	2003 %
A & B	47	48	42	45	61	55
A	13	11	11	8	17	17
B	34	37	31	37	44	38
C	33	31	37	30	24	31
D	10	10	9	10	10	10
Fail	4	5	3	7	5	3
Don’t know	6	6	9	8	0*	1

*Less than 0.05%

Source: Phi Delta Kappan, September 2004, Vol. 86, No. 1

Common Ideas to Put Your Plan in Action

Getting started with your school–community relations plan is the next step that needs to be taken. There are a number of tried-and-proven strategies, activities, and events that will support the school’s mission while impacting the image of the school in the community. The following ideas have been implemented by schools around the country.

Getting Your School Identified and Noticed

School Marquee

The marquee is an effective tool to use to convey important messages to everyone passing by the school. Lori Kinney, principal at Mark Twain Elementary School in Littleton, Colorado, uses the school’s marquee to announce the “Night of the Arts” as well as the school’s “Field Days.” She has developed a form for anyone who wants a message to be displayed, to be given to her before the message is displayed. Principal Ken Winn of Herbert C. Hoover Middle School in Indialantic, Florida, announced his school’s achievement as a Florida “A” school with this message: “Congratulations: Hoover is an A School.” Meanwhile, Cindy Van Meter, principal of Suntree Elementary School in Melbourne, Florida, told the community, “We need tennis balls.” A call to the school revealed the need for the tennis balls to help the students’ chairs glide across the tiled floors better. Scott Hollinger, principal of Christa McAuliffe Elementary School in McAllen, Texas, was actively involved in the installation of the school’s new marquee, which has an electronic message sending capability. Joe Loffek, principal of Port Malabar Elementary School in Palm Bay, Florida, used the school’s prominently displayed marquee (here), on the school’s roof, to announce an evening event, “Strings–Chorus Concert,” and another event, “Young Authors Day.” Other marquees have been seen that had messages recognizing teachers and students who accomplished something very special, such as National Board Certification for the teachers or a science fair or other competition for students.

School Profile Brochure

Some school principals have realized the value of having a colorful trifold brochure to share with interested people who might move into their school district. Julie Sharpe, a teacher at Oak Park Elementary School in Titusville, Florida, who is preparing to become an administrator, designed a trifold brochure for her school as a project when she was a student in a school–community relati...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgments
• About the Author
• Preface
• 1 Uncommon Ideas for Uncommon Principals
• 2 The Need for a School–Community Relations Plan
• 3 Communicating With the School’s Internal Publics
• 4 Communicating With the School’s External Publics
• 5 Written Communications
• 6 Effective Parent Involvement in Schools
• 7 Working With the News Media
• 8 Mentors, Volunteers, and Other Community Supporters
• 9 Crisis Planning and Management
• 10 Assessing the Effectiveness of Your School–Community Relations Plan
• 11 Future Focus