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Community outreach recipe: Salt the food
By Superintendent Gary R. Tipsord
LeRoy Community Unit District 2
All schools, regardless of size or geography, are
impacted by the manner in which their community
engages in the process of educating children. It is
important to view this relationship as the “community”
and not just parents. We have to reach out to the
community in its broadest sense rather than more
narrowly reaching out just to parents.
The rationale is pretty
simple: The community group is
larger than the parent group. If
you are to gain significant
support for any initiative, that
support must come from as
broad a group as possible.
After all, it is the community
that will fund what we do as an
organization; that funding does
not come from parents alone.
Additionally, the broader the
support for any initiative, the
longer that initiative will remain
in place and the more
significant the effort will be to
make it successful.
So how do we make the
engagement possible and
successful?
Celebrate and access talent:
There are school
districts in our state that are ridiculously talented and
purposeful in their efforts. Whether they are like you,
near you -- or even your biggest rival -- be willing to
engage with them in conversation about what they
do, and why they do it. While you may not be able to
do exactly what they do and your motivation may be
different, to ignore the excellence of those around
you is irresponsible.
Know your desired state:
Engaging in the
conversation about your desired state takes time and
is sometimes controversial and difficult, but if you
really believe it is valuable, then invest consistent
with how you see the value of the desired outcome.
You have to know what you desire before you begin
to advocate for support from the community. If your
team does not deeply believe in the “ask,” how can
you expect your community to believe in it?
Be willing to ask:
Once you have crafted the
desired state of your initiative, be willing to seek input
from a representative group of those who will be
impacted by the initiative. Be willing to bring in
parents, community leaders, employers -- and don’t
forget the kids.
Share your vision and ask for honest feedback.
You have to be willing to accept the answers to the
questions you ask. The determination of questions is
no small task, but rather the
most significant portion of
verifying your desired state.
This is where you find out if
your desired state matches
the
values
of
the
community. If you are not
willing to throw it all out,
don’t
engage
in
conversation
with
this
group. The obvious hope is
that you are already closely
aligned with the values of
the community and will only
have to make small
changes to clearly align to
their desires. If not, be
willing to either start over or
create
a
compelling
argument to shift their
thinking.
Be transparent and
provide time:
Once you get to a position of support
from your small group, push the message to your
community in the broadest manner possible. Be sure
to strategically create the message so that it
represents your desired state in a manner that hits
the mark (aim small, miss small). Utilize social media
as you see fit for your district, as well as using your
website and community-wide meetings.
When it comes to social media, determine
what is appropriate for your district but also realize
that many of our stakeholders will engage more
frequently through social media that in many other
ways. You can provide 24-7-365 access to your
desired state through your district’s website. There is
no better way than through the website. If you want
to drive people to your message, couple that
message with student-centered postings so anyone
who visits to see the student-centered stories also
will be exposed to your message.
(Continued on page 7)
Gary R. Tipsord
has been at
LeRoy CUSD 2
since 1990 and
has served as
the district
superintendent
since
2007. Mr.
Tipsord
received his specialist degree from
Eastern Illinois University and was a part
of the first ISAL cohort. He also serves on
the Governmental Relations committee for
IASA and is involved in the Vision 20/20
initiative.
Outreach
