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What is NCSC Doing
to Help Charter Schools
Prepare for
National Charter Schools Week?
by
Vera Haire
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NCSC will distribute your charter school press
release
to over 400 education reporters!
The Sixth Annual National Charter Schools Week (NCSW) is just
six weeks away. As your days are full of many activities and challenges, your
preparations for the great celebration may have been placed on the back burner
- until now. Right? Okay, we know you can use some extra help to jump start
the process. So here are some ideas and suggestions.
Press Release
NCSC has put together a “Press
Center” to help you develop a press release and give you helpful
hints for talking to the press. This is an excellent "how to" public
relations resource. If you plan to hold a special event, make sure to write
a press release to announce the event and its purpose. Read the suggestions
below on themes and news stories to give you some ideas for developing newsworthy
press releases.
In addition to the supporting information in the Press Center,
NCSC is offering to distribute your press release electronically to our national
list of over 400 education reporters. This can replace, to some degree, services
like Business Wire and Bacons. We recommend that you still contact your key
local reporters by phone to give them a heads up about the release. Should
your key reporter not be on our list
, make sure you also email him/her a copy of the release. (If you provide
us with contact information, we will add the reporter to our list.) The most
newsworthy press releases will be published in the next edition of the NCSC
News.
Please let us know, by email at
info@NCSC.info or phone at 866.954.1414, as soon as possible if you are
interested in using our distribution service so we can provide you with the
guidelines.
A Special Event or Open House
Who to invite: Parents, community leaders,
local legislators, press,
board members, investors, supporters, local celebrites, other educators,
charter school association and resource center personnel, and charter
schools in your area.
Develop a compelling theme or news story.
Below are some ideas to stimulate your creativity.
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Present an award to a local official or community leader
for supporting charter schools or your school.
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Recognize student achievement for the most progress academical,
personal, attendance, career, or community involvement. See if you can get
a local government official to present the award.
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Illustrate path to overcoming obstacles for school operations;
outline a road map to future operations.
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Introduce your Alumni Awards Program. Select a graduate
to return to the school to demonstrate how the school has helped him/her
be more successful. Invite former students’ parents to speak. Again,
invite a local government or community leader to present the award.
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Describe how your charter school partners with traditional
schools. Invite a spokesperson from the traditional school to discuss how
the collaboration benefits the students. Emphasize the values to both schools.
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If your charter school targets at-risk populations, discuss
the fact that the children attending your school were dropouts or potential
dropouts with poor attendance and/or academic performance. Address the fact
that the per pupil funding for these students would not have been received
by the district school and that your charter school is not taking funds
from traditional schools. Then, if you can, show how in the long run you
will be saving the state money by providing our society with a productive
member instead of an individual on welfare or in the prison system. Try
to provide dollar amounts and statistics. This should be a compelling story
for reporters.
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If your school is achieving poor academic performance in
state tests, but your students are actually learning more now then they
were before coming to your school, see if you can provide case scenarios
to demonstrate the effectiveness of your program. Only do this if you can
effectively show significant improvements.
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If a teacher has done spectacular things with the students,
acknowledge this accomplishment with an award and give details with facts
on what was accomplished.
Prepare a Speech or Presentation
(Suggested outline)
- School background, board members
- Management’s background
- Mission statement
- Brief summary on how you got your charter
- Staff’s credentials
- Student demographics
- General curriculum
- Special programs
- Academic performance
- Your compelling theme or news story
- Road map for next five years
- Contact information
- Presentation/Speech should be about 20 minutes; schedule a little
extra time for questions
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Develop an plan for the event
- Have some students escort guest to meeting area and refreshments
- Offer refreshments – (perhaps a pot luck contribution from parents)
- Welcome guests
- Executive’s presentation/speech
- Introduction of special guest
- Awards presentation
- Have students perform a skit or demonstration that shows your schools
value
- Parents testimonials
- Tour of school
- Classrooms demonstrate different achievements of students
- Teachers demonstrate specialized methods of teaching
Prepare handouts
- For press guests see the Press
Kit Content on the NCSC website
- For other guests - the press kit has valuable information to share with
everyone
- You might have your students write stories about their own personal experiences
in traditional schools vs. charter schools, and include them in the handouts.
- Include pictures of special activities, unique school values, etc. The
press will more likely write a story if there is a photo. Make sure to get
a photo release if you use a student’s picture.
Be a name dropper
There are many famous people that support charter schools. For example, Arizona’s
Governor Janet Napolitano was the first governor to address an annual charter
school conference, Laura SanGiacomo, start of “Just Shoot Me” is
a co-founder of CHIME Charter Elementary School, and Andre Agassi is the founder
of Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy. Get the names of your famous local
personalities who support charter schools. It is worthwhile referencing the
names of these individuals when you speak about charter schools at your special
event. Describe how prominent people in our nation support charter schools.
What is the first thing you need to
do NOW?
Hold a staff meeting this week.
Suggested agenda for a meeting:
Do you have a newsworthy press announcement? If yes,
- Define the newsworthy message, who benefits and how
- Define two to three key messages about your school that you want the
public to know
- Assign someone to write the first draft – visit the NCSC Press
Center for suggestions
- Assign someone to start preparing the Press Kit material
- Let NCSC know that you want them to distribute your release
Will you hold a special event? If yes,
- Define the theme of the event (that is in addition to NCSW) that is specific
to your school
- Develop a plan. List what needs to be done, for example:
- Do you need to order the plaque or award
- What will the award say?
- How long does it take to get the award?
- Will the person receiving the award be able to attend your event?
- Who will develop the invitation list?
- Who will write the invitation?
- How will the invitation be sent out (email, formal letter, etc.)?
- Will refreshments be provided?
- How can the parents help?
- What should the students prepare?
- When will the press release announcing the event be sent to the medi?.
- How will the handouts/ Press Kit be distributed
And the list grows. Assign items on the list to someone and give
deadlines. There are always many details to go through in preparing for an event
and the more you define what needs to be done, and who will be responsible for
each item, the easier it will be moving forward.
Other Options
If you do not have a news announcement or find you do not have the time to put
together an event, discuss other options.
- Collaborate with another charter school to host an event.
- Post information about NCSW on your website.
- Email a letter to your parents, community supporters, etc about NCSW and
highlight events going on at your school.
- Recognize teachers/staff members for their accomplishments.
It is well known that the first step is the hardest. Hopefully,
these suggestions can make it a little easier to get the ball rolling and spark
some spectacular ideas. It is time to appreciate and let America know how much
charter schools are doing for the youth of this nation.
Vera Haire currently serves as Marketing Coordinator at the National
Charter School Clearinghouse. She has over 8 years experience in corporate
public relations in the high tech industry and was a Senior Account Manager
at BW&A Public Relations. Ms. Haire is a Certified Business Communicator
(CBC) with the Business Marketing Association.
