TSPRA – School PR 365

Communication, Culture, Leadership, NSPRA, TSPRA

Full bucket, grateful heart reflections from my first NSPRA Seminar

July 17, 2019 Jessica Johnston

I started and stopped this post several times because I don’t really know how to do justice to my first NSPRA Seminar experience with mere words. How do I write a feeling? How do I adequately convey the true impact of building new relationships? My school PR bucket is full and I can’t wait to get back and start planning for the new school year! The day before I left for Washington, D.C. I cleared off the “Dreaming-Doing-Done” board in my office. It will no doubt be full of new ideas very soon!

I can easily move the sticky notes from dreaming to doing to done as the ideas come to life!

I am so grateful to each person I met over the last 5 days. I loved the New Professionals Pre-Seminar. It was comforting to be in a room with other new school PR practitioners, soaking up knowledge from two veteran PR pros (thank you Susan and Chris!). Although I am entering my fourth year in school PR, I walked away from that experience with a wealth of ideas and a renewed focus. My biggest takeaway was utilizing RACE / R-PIE in all communication efforts. One of my goals this year is to focus on the research step before diving into implementation.

To the AWESOME #k12prchat family, THANK YOU for welcoming me with open arms and thank you for the Chatty Award! I distinctly remember my mouth falling wide open when Cathy called my name. I did not see that coming AT ALL! I love my hashtag, #jumpin. You all have made it easy for me to jump into the chat and into the group. I am constantly learning from and with you and I am so grateful.

Having presented at conferences in the past, I fully understand the preparation and hard work that are required to plan and deliver quality content. My sincere thanks to those of you who presented at the NSPRA Seminar. I took 10 pages of notes! Your willingness to share your vast expertise and experiences will make me a stronger resource for my district. I am better because of you!

For those of you who may be reading this but were unable to attend the NSPRA Seminar, please feel free to peruse my notes below. I have also included links to notes I have taken at past TSPRA conferences. I hope you are able to fill up your PR bucket with some new ideas, tips, or tricks. #sharingiscaring #bettertogether 🙂

Safe travels to all who are heading back home from Washington, D.C. and thank you, again, to the NSPRA scholarship committee for giving me an opportunity to learn from the best in the nation. I am hooked and I will find a way to see you all next year in St. Louis!

With my friend Heidi Otero who encouraged me to reach for the stars and apply for an NSPRA scholarship!

Communication, Leadership, NSPRA

My first day at the 2019 NSPRA Seminar did not disappoint! Follow along with me here!

July 14, 2019 Jessica Johnston

First of all, I want to thank the NSPRA scholarship committee again for awarding me the Armistead New Professional Scholarship, making it possible for me to attend my first national school PR seminar! The scholarship provided my seminar registration, along with registration for NSPRA’s New Professionals Pre-Seminar Workshop, which started yesterday. By lunchtime yesterday, my bucket was already full! SO many great tips and ideas shared about research, strategic planning, and developing key messages. A big thanks to Susan Brott and Chris Tennill for hosting this awesome learning opportunity.

Every time I attend a conference, I share my live notes for others to follow along. I am a nerdy note taker, but I using Google Docs allows me to go back and search through all of my conference archives when I’m looking for “that” idea. 🙂

Click here for my 2019 NSPRA Seminar notes!

Branding, Communication, Google, Marketing, Productivity, Tools, TSPRA

Are you new to school PR or building a new school PR program? These 5 documents can help you get started!

June 2, 2019 Jessica Johnston

I was recently contacted by a newly hired school PR professional who is building a brand new PR program in her district. Having done that very thing 3 years ago, I was happy to offer my input and share my resources. With the help of MANY veteran school PR pros (thank you CASPRA, TSPRA, and NSPRA!), I’ve filled my toolbox and developed some documents that anyone can use to get a school PR program off the ground. I’m so happy to share those documents with you!

Please feel free to make copies of any of these documents and use them to develop your school PR program or share them with someone who can benefit! They’re all in Google Doc format, so you just have to go to File > Make a Copy to create your own version. Sharing is caring! We’re better together! 🙂

Communications and Community Relations Plan – having a road map to guide communications efforts is incredibly helpful in beginning a new program, keeping it on track, and evaluating it annually for effectiveness.
Annual School PR Tasks Checklist – I find that having a sort of “dashboard” for my annual and monthly tasks is helpful for big picture planning, prioritizing and making sure nothing slips through the cracks.
Branding and Style Guide – I looked at dozens of style guides, some simple and some very in depth, before developing this one for our district. I settled on a simple and straightforward version, leaving room for the addition of details in the future, if needed.
Communications Scorecard – each month I send this communications scorecard to my superintendent and our board of trustees. This is a great way for me to analyze our content and locate trends, as well as illustrate our growth and top efforts.
Stay Connected with our ISD – this is a great publication for parents and the community to see all of the many ways they can stay connected with your schools!

In addition to the documents above, I also want to offer two presentations that I shared at TSPRA last year that may also be of interest/help. One contains ways in which we have engaged various stakeholder groups and the other is a presentation I also use internally to start a dialogue about branding and public education.

C4 Yourself! Cultivate Community, Communication & Culture – bit.ly/bisdc4tspra
Are you BrandED? – bit.ly/tsprabranded

Branding, Communication, Culture, TSPRA

Guiding staff to build a better brand and engaging a diverse community – discussions and presentations from TSPRA19

February 26, 2019 Jessica Johnston

Last week I attended the 2019 Texas School Public Relations Association conference, an amazing experience full of learning and leading together with my Texas school PR family! I had the pleasure of facilitating 4 roundtable sessions about branding, and presented a full session on culture and community. I took lots of notes during the discussions at the roundtable sessions and created a quick Google Docs flyer to share with you. I am also sharing the culture and community presentation in case you are looking for some new ideas. The presentation has links to all of our planning documents and materials for each initiative.

Are your teachers and staff brandED?

A strong brand can increase effectiveness, improve engagement, and positively impact climate. How can you guide staff to build a better brand and deliver results?

Click here for the Google Docs file. Go to File > Make a Copy to create your own version.

C4 Yourself! Cultivate Community, Communication & Culture

Come hear how one rural district is igniting systematic change and engaging a diverse community. Get simple strategies that break down barriers, change public perception, and build a community of public school supporters. No budget? No worries! Most of these strategies can be achieved with even the smallest departments and budgets. Leave this session with ideas you can implement immediately to maximize your resources and get a big return on your investment!

TSPRA

Day 1 of TSPRA19 did NOT disappoint! Here are my 10 favorite moments, plus all of my day 1 notes!

February 19, 2019 Jessica Johnston

It was an AWESOME day at TSPRA19 and I am so thankful for the TSPRA organization, all of the event planners, and the sponsors. Amazing content, incredible attention to detail, and all of the little touches really made today’s experience one to remember. Here are my 10 favorite moments from today!

Getting a sweet new pair of Maui Jim sunglasses at the TSPRA President’s Reception for helping with conference planning. (Ok, that was technically from yesterday, but it was AWESOME!)
Lynne Wester (@DonorGuru) sharing her expertise during opening session this morning and telling the story of how Team Rubicon knocked it out of the park with donor follow-up efforts.
1. P.S. Lynn says you need to thank a donor 7 different times before you ask them for money again!
Hearing the “BOY” method for donor communications … “Because of you…” What a simple way to frame the message to communicate the importance of giving and show the impact it makes!
Being introduced to the “Anatomy of a Podcast” by Christie Goodman with IDRA. They’ve been podcasting since 2006! Check out their Classnotes Podcast.
1. bumper –> standard podcast intro –> episode intro –> transition music –> body –> transition music –> outro –> standard podcast exit
Learning about using Anchor for easily creating podcasts – definitely see some podcasting in my future!
Learning about Digital Juice subscription service for royalty-free content FOREVER.
1. P.S. They’re having a 50% off sale right now!!
Eating “tot-chos” and smores for lunch to fuel up for an afternoon of learning!
Getting a great idea from the Riverside Unified School District website – showcasing statistics in a scrolling banner at the bottom of the homepage.
Getting another great idea from Cy-Fair ISD to use consistent hash-tagging (ex: #CFISDsafety or #CFISDfunrun) to help with branding and recognizability.
BY FAR, the best part of today was having Steven Anderson (@web20classroom) give a nice shoutout to Brenham ISD for our communication plan! Couldn’t believe my good fortune to be sitting in that session to see that! Click here to get our plan in Google Docs (just go to File > Make a Copy to create your own version.)