Task Force Recommends Steps to Improve School Communications

After reviewing surveys from more than 1,000 respondents, conducting research on how other school districts communicate and meeting 10 times the Framingham School Committee’s Communications and Public Relations Task Force presented its final report to the School Committee on Monday night.

The task force made a series of recommendations aimed at strengthening communication between the school district and the entire community.
They were:

• Improve the quality of the communications from the Superintendent’s office and other sources within FPS by establishing a proper review process and an updated and clear policy to govern all communications moving forward.
• Appoint a project manager from existing staff to overhaul the district website, as it is a critical information hub and communications center.
• Support genuine two-way communications by welcoming community feedback. Procedures must be established for receiving input and responding in a timely manner.
• Ensure that communications relating to academic matters are given a high priority by keeping parents more consistently informed across the district.

“We want to hold our administration communications to the same standards teachers have for their students.”

The Task force was co-chaired by Framingham School Committee member Jim Stockless and parent Greg Palmer.

“The School Committee and Central Administration must partner now to turn these recommendations into actionable next steps,” Palmer told the Committee Monday night.

Palmer said he did not believe the district’s communication issues can be turned around in a week or two. “This will take months,” he said said Monday night.

The Task Force convened in January 2015, after it was created by the School Committee.

Members of the Task Force included Stockless, Palmer, School Committee member Don Taggart, School Committee member Eric Silverman, TWPTO co-president Kim Comatas, Catherine Allen, Geoffrey Epstein, Brian Menna, Brad Puffer and Laura Richards.

The Task Force tackled real communications issues in the district as well as the ”perception” of how the district communicates with staff, parents, the community and the media.

One of the biggest issues was the lack of ownership to improve communications in the district.

“No one owns the role of communications,” said Allen Monday night.

The Task Force developed and issued a survey to the community, researched other local school districts to compare best practices, audited current FPS communication procedures, and conducted interviews with senior leadership to understand current challenges and identify solutions.

Framingham Superintendent of Schools Stacy Scott was one of the individuals interviewed by the Task Force.

The community survey returned more than 1,000 responses, including more than 500 people who gave direct feedback.

The survey results showed that while 55 percent believe that school district keeps them informed, or mostly informed, many expressed concerns that information is often delayed or incomplete.

Out of those providing constructive feedback, respondents repeatedly said that they want information delivered directly to families before Framingham Patch and the media, and better systems put in place to receive timely, concise, transparent, and accurate information.

“Electronic communications were overwhelmingly preferred,” Palmer told the Committee, but added a “balanced approached” to communications would satisfy the most parents and citizens.

At each meeting, the Task Force often discussed communication “misfires” in which inaccurate, unclear, or poorly timed information was released to the public.

These discussions included the failure by the district’s former public information officer Justin Martin to notify all stakeholders about the communications survey, the confusing snow day letter and press release that sparked a negative reaction from the town manager, plus numerous other small missteps that demonstrated an ongoing problem with effective communication by the district.

The audit of current school district’s communications practices revealed several problems including technological limitations and a lack of clear policy.

For example, no current administrator is primarily responsible for communications, and while there may be a desire to communicate, there is a lack of resources, guidelines, and basic training.

Allen said senior leaders in the district showed a “strong desire” to want to change and “handle communications better.” But she said those same senior leaders felt “resource strapped.”

The Task Force focused considerable attention on the district website, which is clearly outdated and far behind comparable districts. It is not mobile compliant, user friendly or interactive.

“Everyone is embarrassed” by the website,” said Allen.

Th Task Force said the website update must be given priority in order to make it easier for all administrators to provide critical information to the community on a regular basis.

The Task Force recommended the web site be updated and unveiled by January 1,2016.

School Committee Chair Beverly Hugo said she would make the recommendations a priority of the School Committee.

“We have been deficient in communication,” said Hugo. “I will begin immediately to implement some of these ideas.”

Hugo created a School Committee Subcommittee on Communications last night. Members include Stockless, Silverman and Taggart.

The new subcommittee will be expected to hold regular meetings and provide a report at each School Committee meeting.

Read the Task Force’s report to the School Committee by clicking here.