Give your community a brand to believe in.

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SchoolCEO Magazine fosters a community for K-12 leaders to share their best and most innovative ideas.

Earlier this year, Pew Research Center reported a surprising statistic: Among American adults under 50, nearly half (47%) reported that they never planned to have children. This is up 10 percentage points from only five years ago in 2018 and is aligned with a historically low national fertility rate.

The reasons for this, according to survey responses, are manifold. Over half of these young Americans admitted they just didn’t want to have kids. Others said that finances, or a child’s impact on their career, deterred them from starting families. Regardless, the reality for school leaders is clear: You can no longer rely solely on your families to remain the core of your district’s support.

This would have likely been true even if birth rates were high—after all, school choice has forever changed how families choose their school communities. But regardless, school leaders must be strategic about how they communicate and market to stakeholders outside of their district’s families.

But how do you capture the attention of people who may never walk into your buildings?

By establishing a brand that they understand, believe in, and can rally behind—regardless of who they are. Remember that when SchoolCEO uses the term brand, we mean your district’s reputation, or how people think and feel about your schools.

This brand must be an identity that can help your community see your schools for what they are—a cornerstone of your community that can serve as a cultural unifier during some of the most polarized times in history.

Once you've established a brand your community can get behind, you have to rally them. Do you have an easy way to share your brand with a wide audience, or are the great things happening in your classrooms staying in the classroom?

The goal is to give your community a view into your schools both digitally and in-person. You can do this by sharing the positive stories of what happens in your schools at every level. By giving your community a brand that benefits them—regardless of who they are—such as Lumpkin County Schools, who built free-to-use community meeting rooms in their newest Elementary Schools. Or Jefferson County Public Schools, who rallied men in their community to cheer on their students every single week.

Building a positive association between your community and your brand is a critical first step toward setting your district to thrive. After all, you never know who your district’s next greatest cheerleader will be.

One question for you

1. Which subsets of your community does your district rarely interact with? What are you doing to change this?

Email us at [email protected] or book a time on our calendar and let us know.

Two resources to help

1. The unique partnership between superintendents and school communications professionals can lead to stronger internal and external communications, a more powerful school brand, and a school system better positioned to tackle unforeseen challenges. But what do comms leaders need to thrive? And how can superintendents best support their communications teams? We'll explore what we've learned from recent original research in tomorrow's webinar, Strengthening the Superintendent-Communications Director Working Relationship.

2. Over the years, school leaders have relied on SchoolCEO's original research for crucial insights into district leadership and school marketing. For the first time ever, we have combined our previous research studies into one special edition of SchoolCEO Magazine! Sign up today to reserve your free copy.

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Three ideas to ponder

1. “To keep your marketing responsive, you need to consistently monitor who is responding to what kind of content and where—and focus on the channels where your audience engagement is either consistent or growing.” — America Online: Targeting Your Digital Communication Strategy to Each Generation

2. “When he was a principal, William D. Parker made a practice of walking around his school after every challenging task to notice what incredible things had been happening while he dealt with the five percent. This helped keep Parker motivated and rooted in his purpose, but it also helped him tackle the second barrier: finding time to document and share the good.” — The Power of Principals

3. If you’re like most districts, you already have a school newsletter you’re regularly sending out to families and staff. The question is: Have you built a marketing plan around it? Your newsletter is one of the best ways to build relationships, establish trust, and attract new folks to your district. — The Comprehensive Guide to School Newsletters