PR firm set to help BASD get its message out

Board will consider if communications plan is worth $27,000

By Christopher Bennett

Correspondent

At its May 12 meeting, the Burlington Area School District Board of Education is scheduled to decide whether to adopt a recommendation from its Committee of the Whole and spend more than $27,000 to enhance its ability to communicate with the community.

The committee on Monday recommended adoption of the communication plan for the district. The plan is intended to help the district highlight its success and attract or retain students to help blunt the financial impact of declining enrollment.

The recommended plan is the work of Voss & Associates, an education-centric communication firm based in Sarasota, Fla.

According to Superintendent Peter Smet, BASD falls in a no-man’s land regarding its ability to foster effective and fruitful communication with its customers and potential customers.

“We’re of the size that we’re kind of in the middle range,” Smet said. “If you’re a larger school district than Burlington, you probably have a communication officer. If you’re smaller, you definitely do not.”

Racine Unified School District employs a communication director, as do the school districts in Kenosha and Milwaukee, Smet said.

“I think that Burlington, not unlike all school districts in the country, probably, are struggling to get the message out about what we’re doing and what we’re doing well,” Smet said.

Board President David Thompson said three new students to BASD would theoretically offset the cost of the communication plan. Smet said the District’s revenue limit is about $10,000 per student.

“There’s the opportunity to take some steps to reduce declining enrollment,” Thompson said.

Smet said working with Voss came about by working with CESA No. 2, the Cooperative Education Service Agency to which Burlington belongs with 73 other schools in southern Wisconsin. CESA No. 2 solicited proposals and picked Voss.

Smet said Voss executed a communication audit of the district late last year and presented a contract to address perceived deficiencies.

The proposal from Voss calls for implementation of a strategic communications plan by the district. The plan defines roles and responsibilities and sets a timeline for elements provided by Voss and by the district.

Voss will work to manage branding efforts and multimedia platforms. The firm will facilitate creative input meetings at schools and develop branding materials specific to each District school.

According to the draft of the contract Voss will also provide direction on social media, corporate and business sponsorships and mobile applications. A crisis communication plan will also be developed.

Training will be conducted for staff designated by the Smet, and a speaker’s bureau will be formed that gets district personnel out in the community. Community outreach efforts involving non-district staff will also be launched.

In the contract Voss states it will work with the district to “Consult with staff and help translate budget and education language into words and materials easily understood by the taxpaying public.”

The price for Voss’ services – $27,000 – is payable over nine months. A one-time fee of $2,500 must be paid if the district utilizes Voss’ multimedia Be There campaign.

According to Voss’ web site, Be There, an award-winning national campaign, “is a multimedia campaign that inspires families to become more involved in their children’s education during the ordinary moments of life.”

The contract stipulates variable costs will exist for graphic design, video production services and travel.

“Based on what I’ve seen here in this proposal, it makes pretty good sense,” board member Jim Bousman said at the Committee of the Whole meeting.

However, Bousman aired a concern with the proposal’s long-term viability.

“My concern is when he (Voss) walks away, everything falls apart,” Bousman said. “We don’t have the infrastructure to maintain it.”

Smet echoed Bousman’s concern.

“My concern is the concern I expressed (Monday),” Smet said. “Do we have the capability and number of people, the number of administrators, that could continue this over the long term?”

Voss and Associates is on the web at http://vossandassociates.net. Information about the firm’s Be There campaign is found at http://bethere.org.