ASHLAND — When Ashland Source hosted a Talk the Vote listening session in October 2021, community members were concerned about how the Ashland City School’s Board of Education communicated with the public.
“Some were concerned that board members just weren’t listening, or that the board wasn’t listening to all sides of an issue, or that when the board acknowledged issues, they did so in a condescending way,” Ashland Source reported in January.
One attendee even suggested that if board members fail to communicate, they need to be replaced.
But when asked if the board communicates effectively, President Zack Truax said he thinks they do. He pointed to the board’s live-streamed meetings on YouTube (only one livestream from the July 25 meeting is currently available), and their publicized meeting minutes and agendas.
“I think when you make all the public information readily and easily available for people to find, you’ve communicated successfully,” Truax said.
He also said he frequently fields calls and e-mails from community members and speaks with them in-person.
Ashland Source reached out to consultant firm Hennes Communications to seek advice they generally give to school boards on communication practices. Hennes Communications works with the Ohio School Board Association to offer services for school boards in need throughout the state.
The number one piece of advice that Hennes Communications Managing Partner Thomas Fladung gives to school boards is to speak with one voice.
“That doesn’t mean they have to walk in lock-step like the Stepford Wives or something. There are going to be disagreements, there should be. And there are going to be debates, and there should be,” Fladung said.
“But when that board speaks as a board and not as individuals, but as a board, it’s important that they understand that they speak with one voice,” he said.
The Ashland Board of Education has no formally assigned spokesperson, but Truax often finds himself in that role, he said. And when the board has to speak as one, which is rare, the school board president has taken on that responsibility in the past.
The last time Truax could recall the board speaking collectively was in 2019 during contract negotiations with the teachers union. The board president at that time, Dr. James Wolfe, spoke on behalf of the school board in a press release.
Fladung’s second piece of advice for school boards is for members to understand their roles.
“You want to have this clearly defined role of board members versus the folks running the district on a day-to-day basis,” Fladung said.
A school board member is an overseer of a school district, whereas school staff is accountable to the board but do not directly work for them, Truax said.
Responsibility for day-to-day affairs falls to school administrators who require oversight, Truax said.
“The school officials are not publicly elected. But they spend public funds. So, a group of elected people needs to oversee the expenditure and the use of those funds. That is the basic premise,” Truax said.
Truax believes that Ashland board members have a good understanding of their roles due to their experience with school districts, and due to OSBA training that every new board member has to take.
Fladung also pointed to OSBA training as a good source of training for board members’ roles.
The final piece of advice that Fladung had to offer is for board members to understand how to conduct themselves on social media.
“Time and again we see these problems, these issues that can grow into crises. They begin on social media,” Fladung said.
He added that board members need to understand that once something is posted, it exists forever on the internet and they no longer control it.
However, he did not want to dissuade school boards from using social media.
“Particularly, elected officials really don’t have a choice. Because their constituents are out there and expect to hear from them. But use it judiciously and use it wisely,” he said.
Only two board members have current, public social media pages: Gina Deppert and Pam Mowry. Deppert is on Facebook and Twitter, while Mowry is on Facebook. Board member John Teevan has a Facebook page that has not been updated since 2012.
The board itself does not have a Facebook or Twitter page. Truax described Facebook as “nothing more than people screaming into the black void of the matrix for their own self-gratification,” and said he does not think the school board needs a page.
He acknowledged that people may want a page, but he does not think it’s the correct platform for the board.
“I see Facebook as kind of like the bar. You wouldn’t go into a bar to make formal announcements, right?” he said.
Above all else, effective communication hinges on board members telling the truth, Fladung said.
“Tell the truth. If you tell the truth, not only do we hope you think it’s the morally right thing to do, it’s pragmatically the right thing to do. Because the truth will come out,” he said.
School boards and districts across the country have employed a number of tactics to communicate with the public.
In Brainerd, Minnesota, Brainerd Public School district employees and school board members worked together to draft a comprehensive communication plan, according to an article from the Brainerd Dispatch. Their goal is to inform the community, attract parents of students, and show off the district. One way they plan to accomplish this is by mailing VIP passes to community members that will allow them to take tours of school buildings.
In Webster City, Iowa, the Webster City Community School district’s board hired a communications firm to draft a communications roadmap for the district, according to an article from The Daily Freeman-Journal. A main feature of the roadmap is having teachers record videos of themselves recapping what students learned in the classroom every week.
