Friday, Aug. 28, 2020 | 11:42 p.m.
Clark County School District officials hope a five-year strategic plan with a heavy focus on marketing the accomplishments of students and teachers helps improve public trust in the school system.
Some great things are happening at the area’s roughly 360 schools, and officials want to share the achievements with the community.
“I'm always especially enthusiastic when our work is aligning with theory,” said Irene Cepeda, Clark County School Board member.
A plan presented this week to the board calls for each of the district’s schools to have an individualized marketing campaign by 2024. The campaign would help attract more positive media coverage, which officials believe could lead to increased community partnerships. The campaign would involve assessing the needs, goals and tactics of schools to customize promotional material that would be shared via media platforms.
The district designed a template and marketing kit for schools to adapt to their particular needs and merge that with the overall goals of the district for consistent messaging.
The district provides marketing training to administrators.
Currently 12 CCSD schools have marketing plans. Danielle Ford, a School Board member, asked to see an example of a school's marketing plan at the next board meeting.
One district publicity ploy grabbed attention in 2015 when employees dressed in superhero costumes and danced on Fremont Street in an effort to recruit teachers.
By 2024, it hopes to obtain 25 new major partners, such as Communities in Schools, a national program that provides resources and services for at-risk students. CCSD has also partnered with MGM Resorts and Caesars Entertainment to provide workplace training for their employees about distance learning.
The value of volunteers, donations and cash for the 2019-20 school year totaled nearly $49 million, including 15 new major partners, officials told the board.
Additionally, 23 new organizations participated in the Adopt a School program, in which a business helps a specific school with upgrades, provides mentors, tutors, office assistance, student incentives and more. Some schools, for example, align with neighboring restaurants or casinos to host teacher appreciation luncheons or employee socials.
Marketing shouldn’t be the lone way to build trust with the community, Ford said. The focus should also be on transparency, even in the case of negative publicity.
“Sometimes I feel like sharing the bad news is how we really build trust,” she said.
Ford also said schools should have websites with compatible designs. Currently, “it’s hard to navigate because there’s no consistency,” she said.
The CCSD plan also includes increasing support for parents through a family video series, parent education events and family engagement courses for teachers. They also intend to partner with more local employers to provide training and workshops for parents to use the learning platform Infinite Campus to monitor their child's education while school is online.
