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students fighting, cursing, or worse yet….making out!
The thought still gives me chills.
Tackling the Issue (one week before the first day
of school)
As we met as a leadership team, we made the
intentional decision to not only provide solutions, but
to create a marketing plan that would be followed
along the way. Very quickly, we were able to come
up with a workable plan to house our students in
various areas of our other two buildings. Obviously,
our teachers were going to be moved and
inconvenienced throughout the district. How would
they react?
The plan was put in motion to call a meeting with
union representation and any teachers that could
make it the next day. It was at this point that I called
Mike Chamness at the IASA to ask him for direction
and media statements. I had a statement e-mailed to
me the same night!
The next morning, we held an open and honest
conversation with union leadership, and then with 75
teachers that had been locked out of classrooms at
the elementary
school. In no
uncertain terms
we explained the
problem, the
temporary plan,
and asked if
there was
willingness to
work together to
make this work
for our kids.
At that point, the union president stood and said:
“Our reaction will dictate how our community reacts
to the situation, we can make this work.” I almost fell
over! We left the room united and ready to move
forward.
Executing the Game Plan
I am a firm believer that narratives and images
create lasting perceptions. We met with our football
and cheerleading coaches to ask for help. The
football team agreed to help move all furniture from
the elementary school to our other buildings and to
set up all classrooms. The cheerleaders would help
on the first day. We then released our statement
simultaneously to our parents, teachers, community,
and officially to the media. Our building principals
communicated to all teachers in their respective
buildings and a narrative of “Tri-Valley Works
Together” became the overarching theme. We
realized that consistent communication was going to
be a critical component of the overall plan.
As the media began to emerge on scene to report
the “Horrible Mold Attacks Local School” story, they
found our high school students working alongside
teachers and custodians to set up our classrooms
during the summer. They interviewed our coach and
students, and the message was simply that at “Tri-
Valley we work together.” Stories aired and we
immediately posted all of them to our Facebook page
and on Twitter. We had 4000 likes, shares, re-
tweets, and
positive
comments by the
end of the day.
The tone had
been set and left
little room for
dissension.
After the move,
our teachers
arrived to begin
setting up their
classrooms with
little time to spare. We took pictures of the
kindergarten rooms that had transformed the English
wing at the high school. The sign outside the high
school read “Welcome all Vikings Big and Small.”
We posted all of it to our Facebook page and Twitter
creating a narrative of positive collaboration and
student focus. The media outlets began fighting over
who could be here on opening day to see the
community response. Our mold issue had become
an unlikely opportunity.
The First Day of School
Let me begin by saying that our building
principals had communicated wonderfully to our
parents about parking, drop-offs and protocols on the
first day. Our cheerleaders and football players were
in uniform to greet our youngest students as they
came to school. It was honestly hard not to become
emotional watching our cheerleaders take pictures
with our Pre-k and kindergarten students and then
“Sharing our successes and failures help all of us to
move forward. I recognized that in moments of stress,
we tend to react rather than take the time to game plan
how we communicate. In this instance, I firmly believe
that our strategic communication created a narrative
that led us to a meaningful outcome that everyone can
be proud of. “