The Limestone County School system has developed a communication plan as outlined in its new strategic plan. and soon, they’ll be rolling out new systems to streamline their communication with both employees and parents.

Superintendent Randy Shearouse said the plan was needed to make sure everyone knew the proper channels for information both inside the school system and in the community.

“Currently we use three different communication systems,” Ashley Graves, public relations specialist, said. “This new system, it’s all going to be integrated into one. It will handle all of that [phone calls, text messages, social media, and website information] in one place. So, I think that’s going to help.”

A new website is planned in addition to an app about July 1, and school pages will be maintained and updated with the new system as well. The system is created for the district through Apptegy, which the board approved a contract for as a part of the consent agenda in a meeting on May 26.

“In the communications plan was trying to find a tool that would streamline things so I feel like we’re making progress,” Graves said.

In addition to this update, the new communication plan stated that it lays a framework for communicating with parents, students, and employees or any person with an interest in Limestone County.

There are multiple goals and objectives laid out in the plan that aim to streamline communication on all levels.

Open communication

The first two goals are aimed solely at the idea of keeping the lines of communication open. They are split into two separate goals: one for the community and then one for students and parents.

“We’re always looking for ways to improve and so I think having this communication plan is a step in the right direction and to try and help make that better,” Graves said.

Social media plays a big part of both of these goals and is the number one strategy listed. For parents and students they plan to also use PowerSchool and School Messenger in addition to newsletters and school websites to help get the information directly to them. The integration of the new Apptegy system will help with this as well, Graves said.

At about the time school starts back up, she said they will be at the open houses for schools to talk with parents about the strategic plan and help parents to download the new app and teach them how to customize it if they need help.

“That’s why its really important we always stress for our parents and guardians when they do the online registration to make sure that their contact information is up to date and current because when we do phone calls … that information is pulled from PowerSchool to make that phone call,” she said not everyone would use the text feature they had on the current Remind system.

“With this new system, whatever number you have listed in PowerSchool … you’re going to get that text message unless you opt-out. That’s going to be something that’s different with this new system,” she said. “If you are not currently getting text messages from us, you’ll get a text message with this new system until you opt-out.”

Relationships

Both goals aim to build connections with people from those in the community to parents to students. They plan to host town halls and invite the community other special events as well as participate in other forums and increase their visibility. They want to assure parents and students their voices are heard by continuing to host meetings with the Parent Advisory Committee and Student Senate and involve them in the strategic planning process.

“We want everybody to feel like they’re being communicated with very well,” Graves said. “That’s why it was such a big topic during our strategic plan.”

Engaging with local colleges and media outlets is also important to LCS to maintain a positive image. They lay out that they will have “timely, transparent responses to all media inquires” in addition to press releases and photo opportunities.

More than just those outside of the system, they want their communication with staff to become “frequent, efficient, and uniform.” They plan to offer more professional development courses, email more about school and community issues, recognize employees at board of education meetings and include teachers in the parent notification system among other things. Notably, it mentions the superintendent will attend staff meetings to talk with employees about their concerns or questions.

Method and procedure

When it comes to crisis communication, the plans for that have their own goal. The system will maintain detailed plans and provide information in a timely manner utilizing a pre-determined chain of command. Administrators will have ongoing development for crisis communications and management. Reunification sites and procedure will be provided to parents and guardians and all hazards plans will be updated annually along with team protocols. School Messenger is the system used for emergency notifications

“We just always have to be prepared and so a lot of times if there’s an emergency you know how time is of the essence. Getting that message out in a quick and timely manner, and if you can do it in one spot, rather than to have six different windows open and you can only post one thing here, one thing here, because they don’t link,” she said.

The new system they will use will link all of their platforms together so that notifications are provided simultaneously.

Past just planning for a crisis situation, the communication plan outlines methods and procedures for year-round dissemination of information. The plan recognizes how the district website and school pages remain “the main source of information.” Updating the website having and integrated app and notification system is an important part of putting this communication plan into action.

“I feel like it’s going to be a good thing,” Graves said. “We’re just trying to make communication better not only from a district standpoint to our schools, our principals and our teachers but we’re also trying to make that communication better with our parents.”

Graves said the notifications can be customizable so that parents can get certain schools or the district as a whole.

“So we hope that it’s something that our families will see as a positive thing and hopefully it will be helpful to them because that was one of things that we heard during strategic planning was that communications was a big thing,” she said that parents would tell them about how they had multiple different ways of communication.

Ultimately, the district hopes that this plan along with their new system of communication will help them to streamline communication with all of their stakeholders. The approval of the Apptegy purchase at the May 26 meeting was for $49,695. The board agenda request form submitted by director of technology, Linda Smith, noted the old cost for the systems that this one would replace as $66,419.80. It also mentions the cost will go down after the first year to about $35,000. The form and supplemental attachments showing the pricing breakdowns for reference are attached to this story at enewscourier.com.