August 1999

BACKGROUND: Like many school districts across the country, Salem-Keizer Public Schools is in the midst of great change. The second largest school district in Oregon, Salem-Keizer is a suburban district of 54 schools with 32,000 students. Among the greatest changes: burgeoning student enrollment and implementing statewide school learning standards. Another issue that is not a change, but instead a consistent concern, is keeping schools safe; every formal community survey the district has conducted in the 1990s identifies safe and drug-free schools as the primary concern of parents.

With that in mind, the Salem-Keizer Public Schools Board of Directors reaffirmed three strategic directions for 1998-99. The goals are:

1. Achieving High Standards and Real Accountability through:
   • clearly articulating state and district standards;
   • improving student achievement;
   • increasing options to meet the new standards and;
   • creating a more effective organization, focusing on site-based and shared decision making.
2. Implementing Short- and Long-Term Strategies for Dealing with Student Growth.
   Since 1992, Salem-Keizer has been growing by approximately 700 students a year and projections indicate this trend will continue through the foreseeable future.
3. Making Schools Welcoming, Safe, Disciplined and Drug-Free.
   A zero-tolerance policy toward weapons in schools was instituted five years ago; two years ago the policy was expanded to include alcohol and other drugs, and this past year, zero-tolerance towards threats was added.

These goals were a continuation of the year before and were based on several factors:

• Salem-Keizer scores on state-mandated tests were among the lowest of the state’s 10 largest districts. The Board directed staff to develop a plan to improve scores and maintain community awareness of our efforts.
• A formal parent survey in the fall of 1997 following parent/teacher conferences indicated that our efforts to educate parents about new state learning standards were very successful. However, parents said they wanted more opportunities to learn about the new standards.
• During focus groups and training in February, 1998, school staff indicated their level of knowledge of the new standards was increasing, but they also wanted more information and training.
• Currently, almost all of our schools are at or above capacity, or will be in the near future.
• A community survey conducted in the spring of 1998 showed support for new schools and awareness of overcrowding issues. The vast majority of those surveyed did not support options such as multi-track or double shifting, but did support a bond measure for new schools.
• Individual schools went through a face-to-face input process with similar results.
• Gun-related expulsions have dropped to almost none over the last three years, coinciding with continuing communication efforts to make students, parents and community members aware of the policy.
• However, expulsions related to other weapons, such as knives, remain unsatisfactorily high.
• The Board indicated a need to make sure schools remain welcoming while increasing security measures such as more stringent visitor sign-in policies and decreasing building access to one entrance per building.

The Communications, Community and Governmental Relations (CCGR) Office was directed by the Board, as part of the district’s overall public relations efforts, to coordinate those facets of the board goals which dealt with communications and/or strategic planning. Here’s what we did:

PLANNING STAGE:

• CCGR developed an overall communications plan around these goals
• Each goal had its own working communications plan managed by a coordinator within CCGR; these plans were based on input from staff and patrons, as well as existing data and successful practices.
• Keeping staff informed and engaged as key communicators plays an integral part in reaching these goals — formal community surveys as well as annual school surveys consistently indicate that school staff are the most trusted and most preferred sources of district information.
• The CCGR staff are active participants in strategic planning — communication efforts are interwoven into actions as opposed to being a by-product or afterthought.

EXECUTION OF GOALS: Following are some of the key efforts that have take place between February 1998-February 1999 to make progress in the three Strategic Directions:

Achieving High Standards and Real Accountability (goal 1)

• Utilized spring conferences to further explain state requirements to parents, including distribution of informational materials.
• Provided principals with letters they could personalize, along with information that could be shared with parents when they received their test scores.
• Principals received packets of materials including camera-ready newsletter articles, school improvement fliers and personalized letters to share at back-to-school activities and include in back-to-school mailings.
• Provided talking points and informational materials to share during parent/teacher conferences.
• A town hall with key community leaders was held to gather input on critical issues such as graduation and grade promotion requirements, communication efforts and community priorities.
• Information nights were held in the district’s five feeder systems to provide parents with more in-depth information about the standards. Attendance at these meetings and the town hall totaled more than 1,200.
• CCGR is providing information to parents and students prior to administration of an annual series of state tests, and is developing a plan to communicate results when test scores arrive this spring.
• Ongoing — CCGR provides camera-ready articles for schools each month outlining some facet of the state standards, along with monthly packets of information for principals and teachers and news releases/briefings.

Implementing Short- and Long-Term Strategies for Dealing with Student Growth (Goal 2)

• Conducted voter and staff surveys in April, 1998.
• Conducted input process at all schools to identify improvements needed at existing schools.
• Solicited feedback on possible bond projects from town halls and public meetings last spring; also held more town halls and public meetings this fall and winter to begin siting new schools.
• All schools received notebooks containing information such as bond fund project descriptions, financial information, presentation materials, talking points for principals, a video, FAQs, etc.
• Along with training school administrators, CCGR trained parent volunteers at each school to share bond information with their school communities.
• Won voter approval for the $177.1 million bond on Nov. 3, 1998 with 55 percent of the vote. This was the second largest school bond measure ever passed in Oregon.
• Ongoing communications include several venues — staff newsletter, newspapers, community newsletters, speaking engagements, camera-readys for school newsletters, the district web page, etc.

Making Schools Welcoming, Safe, Disciplined, and Drug-Free (Goal 3)

• Provided back-to-school packets of information for administrators which included camera-ready articles, video and talking points, posters, fact sheets and brochures on the various related programs.
• Mailed a letter to parents from the superintendent advising parents and students of the policy.
• Developed and distributed a handbook which included communications tips for principals and school staff, tips for creating a positive school climate and crisis communications guidelines.
• Conducted a fall inservice on customer service and newsletters.
• A Board-appointed citizen committee developed a survey instrument to evaluate each school’s climate. Committee members are visiting sites between February and May to assess the climate at each of our schools.
• The committee will develop an action plan following completion of the survey.
• Ongoing efforts include news releases and newsletter articles.

EVALUATION . . . how did we do?

• Community survey last spring that identified support for bond and the new state standards.
• Ongoing teacher, student and parent focus groups.
• CIM nights and town hall feedback instruments.
• Passage of the 1998 $177.1 million bond.
• Numbers of guns-related expulsions have dropped dramatically in the last three years.
• The ongoing *welcoming survey outlined above.
• Budgeting now for a formal survey next fall to determine the level of awareness of state standards and how patrons feel about how bond projects are going.
• Ongoing teacher, student and parent focus groups.