::California
Gold winners are a gold mine of PR wisdom
By Cindy Sabato, past CalSPRA President and CalSPRA
eNewsletter Committee Chair
Congratulations to all of the California Gold award
winners recognized at CalSPRA’s annual May conference
in San Diego. These award-winning projects combine
all elements of the public relations four-step process
to create a long-range, strategic program designed
to meet specific goals and objectives, plus incorporate
methods for evaluating the success of the program once
it’s been implemented. In school public relations,
where the crisis du jour sets the priorities for the
day, it can be difficult to plan anything long range
and even more difficult to take the time to evaluate
a programs after its implementation. Fortunately, we
have several California Gold winners this year from
whom we can garner valuable lessons and ideas for our
own districts. Here’s just one—
Public Schools – Lighting the Way
for America’s Future
Stanislaus County Office of Education (SCOE) noticed
that current community dialog on public education was
often focused on the broad issues of funding, academic
standards and test scores; SCOE wanted to take the
conversation to a higher level and challenge its community
to reflect on a more fundamental issue, the value of
a public education in America.
SCOE dubbed its effort “Public Schools – Lighting
the Way for America’s Future,” and set
a goal to raise the level of appreciation in the SCOE
community for public education and to recognize those
who commit their lives to supporting public education.
Recognizing the lofty goal it was striving to reach,
the SCOE communications staff first worked with its
own management team to ensure internal conceptual support
for the project. Second, because the success of the
project was dependent upon a mass communication effort,
a commitment from the regional newspaper was essential.
An initial meeting with the President/Publisher
of The Modesto Bee led to the establishment of
a joint planning team with representatives from both
organizations. According to SCOE Communications Director
Jane Johnston, the Bee became a champion of
the project and provided the primary communication
channel to the public utilizing both print and electronic
mediums.
The project’s target audiences were: 1) adults
throughout the county; 2) educators in the community,
including classified, certificated, and management;
and 3) students in schools throughout the county.
Johnston describes the four primary objectives of
the project as these:
- Challenge the community to tell their stories to
highlight the impact of public education in their
lives.
- Challenge the community to thank someone in public
education, to encourage and appreciate public educators.
- Highlight student appreciation for their schools
and teachers through an art contest and participation
in a Visual and Performing Arts Festival at the local
mall.
- Further educate the community about public education
in the county by providing brief factoids about public
education in Stanislaus County.
With the support of the Modesto Bee, the
SCOE kicked off the mass-media campaign with an opinion
editorial in the Bee and followed that up
with daily education factoids in the “rails” of
the Metro section. In addition, SCOE used briefs in
the “rails” that challenged community members
to send in testimonials about the impact of public
education in their lives and display ads to promote
the opportunity for community members to submit online “thank
you” messages to educators. The Bee also
published two full pages of testimonials written by
its own editorial staff, two full pages of testimonials
submitted by community members, student artwork, and
promotions for the Visual and Performing Arts Faire
that was part of the campaign.
Meanwhile, in other mass media efforts, the SCOE
Superintendent used his electronic message to employees
to promote the campaign, and the SCOE published articles
in its electronic employee newsletter and electronic
publication to key community leaders. In addition,
Johnston’s
staff worked to communicate about the campaign to all
principals and PTA/Booster clubs in the county.
One of the local radio stations interviewed students
live on the radio to share their thoughts on school
and their teachers and provided a live remote broadcast
at the mall during the Visual and Performing Arts Faire.
Finally, in the mass media component of the campaign,
SCOE identified six high-traffic locations throughout
the county for billboards promoting the month-long
focus on the value of public education.
To reinforce the campaign’s key messages, superintendents,
SCOE managers, county curriculum directors and others
talked about the campaign on a regular basis at regularly
established meetings and other interface opportunities.
Early on, SCOE had established several indicators
that would let them know the campaign was successful
and these indicators were measured at the end of the
campaign. Twenty-two community testimonials were printed The
Bee, eight Bee editors shared their
own testimonials, and 123 notes of appreciation were
sent to educators through the online website. The Bee also
published 17 factoids and two pieces of student artwork.
The Visual and Performing Arts Festival drew a larger-than-usual
crowd. Unexpectedly, and as an extension of the month-long
campaign, the Modesto Bee now publishes a
weekly story on a public educator who is making a difference
in the community and the Education Foundation of Stanislaus
County recognizes each educator with a donation in
their honor.
Johnston says relationships were the key to the success
of the project and is pleased that as a result of the
successful campaign the SCOE and The Bee partner
in two additional programs. |
