Communication Plan

OVERVIEW

The Trenton Public School District recognizes that clear, accurate, and timely communication is essential to establishing trust, cooperation, collaboration, and a sense of community with students, staff, families, and those residing in Trenton.

 

 The goal of the Communication Plan is to provide a comprehensive and integrated communications process for more effective communication with all stakeholders

 

This plan was developed to:

  1. Foster strong relationships with district stakeholders.
  2. Provide a focus and direction for messages/methods in support of the district’s goals.
  3.  Enable the district to present itself accurately to audiences.
  4.  Support students and staff and promote educational programs / extracurricular activities.
  5. Assure transparency in school district operations.

Types of Communication

  • Routine (reminders via email, text and phone call; quarterly newsletters)
  • Personal (i.e. face-to-face or telephone meetings, in-person or virtual presentations)
  • Digital (i.e. email, social media, website)
  • Emergency (i.e. mass notification alerts of emergent matters)
  • Click here to read how the district communicates. 

General Considerations

Regardless of the type, format, and audience, all communications should meet the same general standards to ensure that the message is meaningful, relevant, and consistent with our goals.

 

To that end, all communications should strive to be:

  • Clear and concise
    • Keep messages brief and to the point
    • Use bullet points and other formatting techniques to emphasize key concepts
    • Highlight the message in the title/subject to make it easier to identify
    • Avoid information overload
    • Spell out acronyms and avoid jargon
    • Think of your audience when crafting the message and ensure questions that they may have are being answered
    • Link to website or attach ADA compliant files for more information.
  • Timely
    • Communication should be presented early, with all the information and often
    • Be mindful that not everything needs to be communicated without a plan
    • Be intentional with your communication.
  •  Accessible
    • Provide translation resources whenever possible for non-English speaking audience.
    • At a minimum, flyers should be translated into Spanish, Haitian Creole should be the next option followed by additional languages in your school or content area.
    • Consider ADA best practices when posting online for those with visual and hearing impairments
    • The district recommends using Canva for all flyers and marketing materials. All school district employees can create a free premium education account at www.canva.com/education/
  • Representative of the District
    • Proofread all documents for accuracy and professionalism.
    • AP Stylebook and Grammarly are great tools in addition to spellcheck.
    • Emphasize Customer Service Personal, not limited: Telephone calls and face-to-face meetings
    • Encourage staff to relay messages through personal interaction when appropriate via telephone calls or face-to-face meetings.
    • The more difficult the situation, the more important it is to communicate face-to-face
    • Promote a customer service oriented approach
  • Quality Images
    • Use high resolution photos that are clear
    • Balance the composition and subjects of the photo for aesthetic value
    • Demonstrate students ‘in action’, not just ‘staged’  photos
    • Ensure all students photoed have signed media releases. If no media release photos should not include faces or identifying factors (think backs of heads).

Measures of Success

  • To assist us in evaluating the effectiveness of our communication efforts, the following resources will be considered:
    •  Quarterly Newsletters: To review content and messaging
    • Website hits and traffic reports: To view stakeholder engagement
    • Social Media coverage: To assess impact of social media
    • Attendance at school and district events: To assess stakeholder engagement and determine follow up