When community members think about Park Ridge-Niles District 64 schools, they envision a community-oriented, multi-generational school district providing a high-quality educational experience that costs residents a lot in tax dollars, according to the results of recent communications analysis.
Earlier this year the district hired Patron Insight, a Kansas-based firm focused on communication, stakeholder research and strategic planning for schools, at a cost of $15,000 to determine the effectiveness of the district’s outreach and communication efforts, particularly with regard to community members without children enrolled in the district.
“District 64 is frequently in touch with families of our students as well as staff members, but is far more limited in how we can directly reach community members at large,” wrote Superintendent Laurie Heinz and public information coordinator for the district, Bernadette Tramm, in an April 24 memo to the district’s board of education.
Ken DeSieghardt, CEO and partner at Patron Insight, presented preliminary results of the company’s findings at a school board meeting held April 24. The evaluation, which began March 27 and lasted for roughly a month, included four focus groups with taxpaying residents of the district without children in its schools, online surveys, phone interviews with 15 “opinion leaders” from the community, individual interviews with board members, district administrators and school principals, in addition to 400 telephone surveys of non-parent residents.
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More than 1,200 people provided feedback as part of the evaluation, according to DeSieghardt. He said the firm also analyzed outbound communications flowing from the district to residents.
Four consistent themes emerged from interviews and surveys of all the district’s stakeholder groups, he said. The first was community, meaning “parents are engaged, supportive” and a sense of community is encouraged at the administrator and building levels, according to DeSieghardt
The second was family, he said. “A lot of folks talked about the multi-generational community — people who live here, many went [to school] here, people move out and come back so their kids can go here,” DeSieghardt said.
“Folks said households in this community are very motivated to have their kids succeed and also put their kids in the best position to succeed,” he added.
Community members also believe students who graduate from District 64 schools are prepared for high school, DeSieghardt said.
“We heard that over and over and over again,” he said. Staff at the schools are also perceived to be committed not only to the academic development of children but to their social and emotional growth as well, he said.
High taxes and a focus on the amount of tax revenue the district receives also emerged as a common topic of conversation, he said.
“We had one person in the focus group who pinpointed what percentage of her tax bill went to the school district and she just said it matter of factly,” he said. DeSieghardt there’s also a “variety of information out there” about teacher and administrator salaries in addition to uncertainty about financial decision-making processes.
The district’s outgoing communications content, however, demonstrates consistency, purpose, quality and transparency, he said.
“It’s very clear that the outbound content is driven by a strategy that it’s looking for engagement, it wants folks to participate in a conversation and to provide feedback and uses multiple venues to get that message out,” he said.
The overarching takeaway from the firm’s findings, DeSieghardt said, is to connect with residents by “looking at each possible story opportunity,” and the “story we’re really telling here and how we can make it relate to individuals who maybe don’t have children in the district.”
Board President Anthony Borrelli asked if it was a matter of disseminating out more specific information “or at least information that can connect individually to people.”
DeSieghardt said it’s about telling success stories and tying those stories back to whatever subject you’re trying to build awareness around, whether that’s the district’s strategic plan or how and why it chose to make a particular financial decision.
Repetition “almost to the point of nauseam” is also key, he said.
“Keep it simple and repeat the heck out of it,” DeSieghardt said. “That’s how you get people to say, ‘Oh, they’re doing some cool things.’ “
Lee V. Gaines is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.