Rockwood School District Amps Up Communications Strategy

The Rockwood School District is going on the offensive.

At a meeting Thursday night, the school board unveiled a variety of initiatives aimed at improving and overhauling its approach to communications and public relations.

The Rockwood School Board voted to establish a four-member communications, outreach and engagement committee with the goal of increasing the public’s understanding of “the rational behind Board actions and policies.”

The committee will consist of board members Darby Jo Arakelian and Keith Kinder, Chief Communications Officer Kim Cranston and Interim Superintendent Terry Adams.

Their district’s strategic communications issues, Arakelian said, were part of the focus at a recent board retreat.

The committee will be charged with helping Rockwood execute its revamped communications strategy, which included proposing the board find new ways to talk with its stakeholders.

“You will be seeing a lot of new things and maybe some old things we will be bringing back,” said Board President Bill Brown. “You will be seeing the board being much more visible and out in the public.”

Suggested channels included:

• Board coffees: Staff/parents/patrons are invited to one of four coffees for informal conversation with board members once per quarter
• Community conversation: Could involve presentations on a critical question or topic of importance, followed by feedback-gathering small group sessions.
• Board blog: Board members would discuss the rationale for Board action/decisions and forecasts of upcoming BOE meetings twice per month.

These would be in addition to the 14 different “vehicles” already used by the district and encompassing a variety of media, which range from PR features on the district’s website to paid advertising in local publications.

The new initiative follows Rockwood’s failed attempt to pass the $38.4 million Prop S in April, the second year in a row a bond issue has come up short at the ballot box. 

However, Brown said the effort is not about what has happened in the past.

“We are not doing it to erase any negatives but to create positives,” he said.

Brown also noted that it would be used to increase the public’s engagement as the district prepares to search for a permanent replacement for former superintendent Bruce Borchers, who resigned to take a job in a Tennessee school district earlier this year.