CPSEL #4: Building Community

Hallmark 6, SNDdN

The Opportunity:

Communication is an area that we have struggled with at Notre Dame for as long as I can remember. With our school currently engaged in the self-study process for WASC, we have a wonderful chance to learn more about what is and isn't working with our communications plan and then take steps to improve. In addition, how the world communicates is changing. To remain a viable options for families, we need to ensure that our communication is reaching not only our current parents, but also our future families. This requires us to look at our website as well as how we engage on social media.

The Process:

A few different areas are currently under review with respect to our communications practices: parent communication, the school website, and the use of social media by the school.

Parent Communication

The following are a few of the communications-related questions asked on our WASC survey along with the results. Note: The WASC/WCEA protocol requires that a 1-7 Likert Scale be used with 1 being low and 7 being high.

Question:

Results (to date):

Just these two questions are extremely revealing with respect to how well we are communicating with our parents and also how our parents want to be contacted. The survey will not be closed for several more weeks yet so we hope to get more parent feedback as the current sample is barely 25% of our parent community. However, the two data points that stand out for me are:

1. No area (Administration, Athletics, Counseling, Teachers, Staff) is receiving even a 50% satisfaction rate with regards to communication--looking at the percentages of 6s and 7s only. That is a HUGE problem!

2. The families that responded prefer email and weekly eBulletins for communication. This opens up other questions regarding the viability of the current website as well as the energy being placed on social media.

As the Communications Team is able to spend time over the next few months looking at the responses, we will be in a stronger position to adjust our communications efforts in order to meet the needs of our current parent community as well as create a differentiated communications plan for potential parents and general community constituents. This information and planning is invaluable as we work to position ourselves as a strong education option for families.

School Website

I have been tasked to lead a project designed to identify a new web hosting company. The impetus for this is the fact that our current provider is no longer a good fit for our website goals. The fall was spent researching three options:

1. continue with our current provider

2. hire someone in house

3. find a new provider

The decision was to go with a new provider. I will report to the Board of Directors on the decision the school has made at the April Board meeting. Currently the presentation is in draft stage, but the notes are available here. Once the Board approves the plan, we will be able to move forward with the migration of our existing site to a more dynamic and responsive platform that will be easier for end-users to navigate and much simpler and more cost effective for the school to keep updated. Not only will the new site be easier to navigate, it will cost less. The cost savings we will gain from the new website when it is launched will provide the school with funds that can be used to directly impact learning. The savings of $5400/year is fantastic and on top of that, we will not be required to outlay $25,000-$50,000 up-front. That savings is enormous! A website, while necessary, does not have a direct impact on student learning. Those savings translate into an additional faculty or staff member or acquiring additional equipment; either of those options DO have a direct impact on student learning.

Social Media

Our final communications initiative that I am assisting with is the role of social media in our communications plan. I am active on Twitter and Instagram, as are a number of our teachers and program area heads. We also have a school FaceBook page. This year has been one of intentionally combining our social media pages in order to unify the message that we are conveying. Some notes from Communications Team meetings this year reflect aspects of these discussions and efforts. Interestingly, as the WASC survey identified, not many of our parents are currently operating in the social media arena. This can be seen as good news. It will allow us to really hone our social media messaging while we wait for our parent population to "catch up". Ultimately, we can be well positioned to fully leverage social media with our future parents. Schools need to be sure they are meeting the needs of all their families when it comes to disseminating information. This is why finding the right blend is so important for Notre Dame and why I am happy to be a part of this process.

Where We Are Now:

Our communications efforts are far from "done". There are three big initiatives all in progress and none are really close to a state of completion. In addition, while communication is "everyone's job", it is not something that I have any direct control over. This proves challenging at times. Social Media is definitely improving as those who are using different accounts are standardizing the use of hashtags, all FaceBook pages have been pulled down with the exception of two main pages--one for current and prospective families and one for alumnae, and those of us who actively use social media regularly tag each other. However, as can be seen in the following images, the tagging is not consistent--indicative of another growth opportunity.