Do You Have A Strategic Partner Program?

Do you know all of the business, non-profit, higher-ed and faith-based partners that are working with your district and with each of your schools? Do you have a comprehensive view of what programs they participate in and resources they provide? Sadly, most districts are challenged with connecting partners to schools, communicating with partners about school needs throughout the year, and keeping track of the impact.

From my experience working with schools systems of varying sizes and leadership philosophies, there are a couple of key elements needed if you want to develop a strong, strategic, effective community partner program.?

First, your school district needs a ‘strategic’ outlook when it comes to community partners. From large urban districts, to single-campus charter or private schools, there is always a desire to tap into the goodwill and resources of local businesses and organizations.?

The problem that invariably comes up is that a partner organization gets connected with a campus or department and gets ‘stuck’, meaning their internal point of contact wants to ‘own’ the relationship with that partner, and they are unaware of other ways they might assist your school system. All partnerships should be considered as ‘strategic’ which means they tie-in at a system-wide level so you can keep track of which campuses they support; what outcomes they provide; and you can reach out to thank them and inform them about other ways they may be able to help your school system.

This strategic perspective leads to the other crucial ingredient to a successful partner program. That is senior leadership buy-in. School systems are a bureaucracy and there are invariably silos of information (and power) that go with owning a partner relationship. It’s up to the Superintendent, CEO, School Director, etc. to make sure everyone understands that external partnerships are a strategic resource and while there may be a school or department that leads in working with that partner, there is a requirement to centralize some of the details about those partner relationships.

If your school system has these two elements in place, or can establish them as a tenet of your culture, then you have a much better chance of building an effective partnership program and making strong relationships with your community partners.