NSPRA's Communication Audit Report - Harford County Public ...

school motto and mascot, etc.). At present, no consistent standards are followed, and
many of the newsletters give no indication of what school district they belong to. In order
to build a marketing “brand” for the district, all schools should clearly identify
themselves as being a unit of HCPS.
Because school newsletters are a primary source of information for parents, they should
be designed with this in mind. This could be approached in two ways: several different
templates could be professionally designed for principals to use, or inservice training
could be provided for staff members responsible for producing newsletters. This would
help to ensure greater readability and consistency across the district.
Some districts create a stylebook that provides schools and departments with information
and guidelines on writing style and punctuation, graphic design tips and guidelines, and
use of the district logo and positioning statement. This can be a particularly helpful tool
in large districts such as HCPS.
Recommendation 8: Continue to develop and expand public
engagement/outreach efforts.
HCPS has initiated successful public engagement processes on different topics in recent
years such as study circles on minority issues, town hall meetings on the development of the
Master Plan, and an Education Leadership Conference that included state and local elected
officials as well as parents and staff. In addition, the district has an active PTA Council and a
variety of advisory committees and councils to assist district leaders in studying and addressing
issues and challenges. However, when asked whether they feel HCPS provides opportunities for
stakeholders to have input into decisions in general, many focus group participants expressed
doubt as to whether their voices are truly “heard” by district leaders.
This perception appears to be driven in part by a lack of follow-through on the district’s
part in closing the communication loop by informing stakeholders on the outcomes of actions
taken as a result of their input. Focus group participants also indicated that there is a need for the
Board to improve its relationship with the community as they are sometimes perceived as being
“non-responsive.” These perceptions are indicative of the ongoing importance of the
communication effort in building trust, confidence and a sense of shared responsibility for the
schools among all stakeholders – internal and external. HCPS has been in the vanguard of
Maryland school systems using public engagement strategies, and we strongly encourage the
district to continue to develop and expand engagement efforts in order to address these concerns
and strengthen relationships with the community.
Timing is critical to all successful engagement initiatives. In order to include
opportunities for parents and community members to participate in dialogue with the Board and
administration on major initiatives or program and policy changes that impact the schools, the
district must factor this into decision-making timelines. While it is difficult to put exact start and
finish times on any given issue under discussion, one way to begin is by determining the outside
deadline for a final decision, and then work backwards from that point. The bottom line for
NSPRA Communication Audit 36 Harford County Public Schools