reviewing the promotional material for Lake Washington School District’s Pre-School Program|Quick homework help

Marketing a New Program

Introduction:

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Based on everything that you have learned regarding working with internal and external stakeholders, using various communication tools, and navigating media relations, while considering legal ramifications, you will be analyzing a real public relations issue in a school to assess how it was handled. You will have the opportunity to both critique promotional material for a new program.

Instructions:

After reviewing the promotional material for Lake Washington School District’s Pre-School Program (see links below):

1. Write 2-4 well-developed paragraphs, addressing the points below. Cite evidence from the reading or other scholarly sources.

○ Who is the intended audience of this promotional material? ○ What are the strengths of this promotional material? ○ What areas of opportunity do you recognize? How might you

address these?

Lake Washington School District Pre-School Program Website

Lake Washington School District Pre-School Promotional Video

Warner, C. (2009). Promoting Your School (3rd ed.). SAGE Publications, Inc. (US). https://bookshelf.vitalsource.com/books/9781452261188

2 Making Your Schools Stand Out

“Knowing where you stand isn’t the same as standing out.”

What makes your school different from others? Can you clearly define what is special and

unique about your school? Can others on the staff? Can parents? Can your community? In an

era of choice and local community involvement through participative management, not only

must you be able to define your uniqueness, you must be able to demonstrate it as well.

There was a time when public schools were pretty much created from the same mold. No matter

where you traveled throughout the country, you could reasonably expect to find the same basic

program of instruction delivered in the same basic style. Even the school buildings tended to

follow the same standard design.

For the most part, it was the private schools that offered specialized programs: some

with a religious orientation; some with a college preparatory focus; and all designed to appeal to

the special interests of parents or benefactors, if not of students.

As a tool to encourage voluntary school desegregation, public education expanded on

the concept of magnet schools, a variation of the private school model. Magnet schools placed

special emphasis on a particular academic program, such as science and technology,

international studies, foreign languages, or the arts, to attract students to attend schools outside

their own neighborhoods. Although magnet schools have achieved a certain degree of success,

by definition, they generally lack the critical component of a supportive and involved community.

The successful school of the 21st century will work closely with the community, first to

identify that community’s most important educational needs and goals and then to design a

program that meets those needs. The key is to create a dynamic program that also positions the

school as an innovative and flexible institution within the community. Anything less will lead to

schools being perceived only as part of the problem rather than as part of the solution.

IMPROVING YOUR IMAGE Whether you realize it or not, your school already has an image. You don’t have to have a

communications plan in place for the public to have a perception of who you are and what you

are about. Unfortunately, if you are not actively planning and managing what you communicate

about your school, your perceived image could be that of “Just a school, I don’t know if it’s a

good one or not,” or even worse, “That’s the school I don’t want my child to go to.”

Images are created (or re-created) by communicating your desire to serve your

constituents, working with them openly and honestly to establish a relationship of trust, and

consistently delivering the expected product or service. Douglas Pfeninger, principal for over 25

years at Dartmouth (Massachusetts) Middle School, acknowledges that his job of marketing is

not so hard these days because “We have developed a reputation as a quality school. My

‘selling’ is our product over the years.”

Susan Van Zant, principal of Meadowbrook Middle School in Poway, California, not only

appears at all school events, she is out in front of the school at the end of each school day.

Principal Nancy Saltzman of Broadmoor Elementary School in Colorado Springs, stands outside

and greets the students every morning before school and does parking lot duty at the end of the

day as well. Richard Janezich, principal of Brooklyn Center High School in Minnesota, takes this

a step further. He believes that it is important for the principal to be visible in the community and

attends as many civic meetings as he can fit in, from meetings of the city council and the

chamber of commerce to those of civic groups such as the Rotary, Lions, Chamber of

Commerce, and Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW).

Establishing a relationship of trust can be as simple as validating and recognizing the

students in the school. To parents, no one is more important than their child. If the principal

validates their child, parents will be more trusting that their child’s best interests will be met.

Hanging students’ pictures in the hallways is a way that Karen Bangert, principal of

Wagonwheel Elementary in Gillette, Wyoming, shows that each child is important. Larry Clark,

principal at Halifax County High School in South Boston, Virginia, arranges for weekly

scheduled photo ops. When Ken Cazier of Star Valley Junior High School in Afton, Wyoming,

presents “good deed” tickets, everyone knows he has found the “positive image” that Afton

educators promote.

If your school’s image needs improving, it will take planning and patience to achieve this.

A plan is necessary to effectively target your needs, your audience, and your message. It takes

time for people to assimilate the new messages you are sending about your school, especially if

you must first overcome old, negative perceptions.

STRATEGIC PLANNING: THE KEY TO ORGANIZATIONAL SUCCESS A strategic plan is the essential first step for the success of any organization, including a school.

You have to have a clear vision of where your organization/school ought to be and of where the