I don’t want to be on 9 o’clock news! Could this be a 2018 resolution?

I don’t want my school on Social media or news for the wrong reasons! Could this be a 2018 resolution?

For many the media can be helpful and keeps the community up-to-date on everything happening. However in some cases the media can cause more problems for schools; with enough archives and storage online, news that you want to put in the past continues to haunt you. A parent trying to enroll their child in a new school does not just go to the school website to find information, but does a google search for anything they can find from various school review sites. Greatschools gives public opinion on schools, parenting magazines offer advice and The Journal shows the latest technology trends at schools to expect and there’s many more. Here are a few big priorities to consider that parents look for when they evaluate your school:

• Is your school “A” rated and have a high star rating for online reviews? – Let’s face it, there is an ongoing competition between schools to be the best rated. The districts have measures to evaluate the schools and incentivize the right talent and efforts. The educators are continuously evaluating the best way to market the schools in the right light.

• Does your school have the right focus areas to help their children succeed? – Schools have different focuses like STEM, IB, Arts, custom models or curriculum for Special needs children to attract students and best serve their community. The school district portals give more information based on the focuses offered and social media platforms also throw light on how effective schools are in delivering their specialization which can be the deciding factor for many families. Ensure your schools are putting their best foot forward by listing various programs and awards in the forefront of your media pages.

• Is your school a safe environment for their child? – This is the most sensitive question a parent asks themselves and they will not compromise. This is a tricky area to provide standard ratings on, as one incident could change the perspective of the entire school community, even if the school built enough credibility over years. It’s best to provide all associated information to parents on how your school addresses security concerns. What programs do you use? What is your safety protocol?

All the questions above are interrelated. A school with consistent issues in the media would see a drop in student enrollment, staff or administrators and ultimately impact the district’s reputation and funding, since they are the ones responsible for what happens at their schools.

Schools administrators have to run their schools like any other business and be on top of all social feeds and news to be successful. Would they need a CMO (Chief marketing officer) ? or Risk Mitigation team? to enable this. Would their budget support this? It’s always easier to use tools and training to stop incidents rather than manage the aftermath once it happens.

Facebooks, Twitter feeds or other evolving social media acts as tools for parents, but requires screening through these feeds on a few key words like “bullying”, “violence”, “lockdowns” to make it useful for schools and parents. There is some work involved in filtering these social media to see through the fake or false alarm, the easy link that gets the immediate attention is your local news online or paper.

Reflecting on the negative publicity in 2017 there is at least one major news story every month on missing children, child dismissed to the wrong /unauthorized parent or boarded a wrong bus.

There is an easy way to stay away from this publicity, when we ensure there is parent engagement, digital authorized delegations, online official changes in schedules, approved dismissal plans and instant alerts to parents on the end of day dismissal. It gives you more time to plan, respond and react!!!

PikMyKid would love to add your school to our network of Happy, Healthy & Safe schools that keep negative publicity at bay. Schedule a demo and ask about our New Year’s specials for new schools!