CLICK HERE to see our other Public Relations articles!

Public Relations and the High School Principal

  The Principals’ Partnership website introduces this month a column on public relations written by Lew Armistead. The column will continue with communication advice and specific, proven, practical, low-cost PR ideas that principals can consider for their school. Lew, who is working as a public relations advisor for The Partnership, created the award-winning public relations department at the National Association of Secondary School Principals, where he worked for 16 years. He is a former president of the National School Public Relations Association and assisted the Jefferson County Public Schools for the first month after the shootings at Columbine High School dealing with the international news media and developing communication strategies to help return normalcy to the school.

     School public relations—just one more task in the life of a busy high school principal or a practical way to build community support for your school and students? When done correctly, there’s no doubt PR can deliver the latter.

     As more and more demands are placed on schools, it’s essential to develop understanding and support in the community because educators no longer can “just do it alone.” James Tolley, former vice president of public affairs for Chrysler, said “All institutions live or die by public opinion.” While that is obviously true for a corporation, it also applies to education as schools and principals today try to deal with pressure groups, governmental mandates, declining budgets, greater demands, and the fallout from societal pressures.

   For public relations to be useful for school leaders, it must be seen in its true value. PR is not a way to fill one’s scrapbook with positive news clippings. It’s not something to do only when a crisis arises. Patrick Jackson, a former New England PR counselor, said it best when he defined public relations as “building relationships that change attitudes and bring about desired behaviors.” Frankly, there are numerous attitudes that need to be improved—legislators who enact laws without having any experience in schools since they graduated from high school, students who don’t understand that what they do in the classroom today is an investment in their tomorrows, parents who believe older students don’t want or need their support, and older citizens who no longer think their community schools have benefits for them. All of these attitudes, and many others, can be impacted by positive public relations.

    And the good news for high school principals is that PR is not mystical. There are schools across the country that are practicing low-cost, practical public relations. The ideas they are implementing can be replicated by any school.

    We will share specific ideas and thoughts about effective school public relations on the website in the future and encourage you to share your best PR ideas with your Partnership colleagues. More about that later, but first there are some general concepts about school PR that should be considered.

Principals are reputational leaders of their schools. Just as the effective principal is an instructional leader, so should he or she be a reputational leader. This means alerting staff to the importance of PR/communications and providing staff development in PR as needed. Setting an example as a positive PR practitioner goes a long way in being the school’s reputational leader.

But everyone contributes to the school’s reputation. While the principal takes the lead, everyone plays a role in building the school’s reputation. In fact, surveys indicate that in most communities the top four sources of information about a school among staff members are school secretaries, custodians, food service personnel and bus drivers. Many of these people reside in the community in which they work and are information sources at community events. This should tell principals that they better make certain professional support staff understand instructional issues at the school.

While it’s important to create formal communication channels, most information is communicated informally. Many schools pride themselves on their new, creative website, yet more information is shared through word-of-word at the supermarket, cosmetology salon, bridge club, youth sporting events, and similar activities than any other way. That’s why it’s so important for all staff members to be PR ambassadors for the school.

You don’t have the choice of “doing PR.” It’s not an option to say, “We don’t do public relations at our school” or “I don’t have time to do PR.” Think back to the days when you might have worked in an elementary school or you had elementary school-aged children. The third grader comes home from school; parents ask, “What did you learn in school today;” and the child responds, “Nuthin.” That’s public relations, and just think how much high school students can communicate and the broad reach of their communications. While schools don’t have the choice of doing PR, they do have the clear choice of whether their total communication program is more positive than negative. Helping principals turn their schools into positive communication institutions is the aim of this column.

PR doesn’t have to be expensive. Many of the best public relations ideas have little or no impact on your budget. Some of those are presented below and more will come in the future. As reputational leaders, principals will have to invest some time in determining which PR ideas are most likely to have the greatest impact on their school. But that’s an “investment” of time that should pay off in greater community support.

Effective PR = community support. That’s really the bottom line in PR—developing community support. Schools can not rely on the news media or local politicians or others to communicate for them. Your reputation is too important. Schools that become involved in positive PR are much more likely to create a climate of understanding and support among the many audiences touching the school. And a supportive community is good for kids.

A great source for additional information on school PR is the National School Public Relations Association. Check out NSPRA’s publications and meetings at www.nspra.org.

Ideas That Work

In the future The Partnership website will feature ideas that high school principals have used to develop understanding and support for their schools. Send in your best idea to share with your Partnership colleagues and gain recognition for your school. Send information to Lew Armistead at [email protected].

Devote 5 to 10 minutes at staff meetings to PR. This can be an effective way to introduce staff members to why public relations is important and ways to do PR. Share written materials; feature a staff member who has done effective PR; encourage staff members to share their best ideas; if your district has a PR professional, have him or her contribute.

Develop a theme for your school that really says what you are about. Then put that theme where people will see it over and over again. It’s great to have it on your letterhead, but more people will see your envelope. Place it on your website, marquee board, lunch menu, newsletters, bulletin boards, etc.

Alert people to your website through your marquee board. If you have a marquee board in front of your school, consider placing your website address at the bottom of it. Many people without children will drive past that board and can find out how to learn more about your school.

Show your successes with a “Wall of Fame.” Consider placing photos and short write ups of your graduates who have gone on to achieve special success. Have a broad cross section of successes, ranging from business to government to science to athletics to more. Be sure it’s in a prominent place where visitors will see it.

A public reputation for your high school will emerge. It will come about as the result of a carefully-planned and attentively managed program designed to present the school’s positive qualities, or it will come from happenstance, accident and the tremendous influence of the community’s grapevine. By not constructing a solid PR program, principals run the risk of having their school’s public reputation created by others who may not have its best interests at heart. The question is not whether a school will have a public reputation, only who will create it.

Prepared by Lew Armistead
Principals’ Partnership Public Relations Advisor
[email protected]

CLICK HERE to see our other Public Relations articles!