Communications Committee

  • Communications Committee Progress Report, August 4, 2020 

     

    • The committee discussed the draft one-page summary of the parent survey results. It was decided that the summary was ready to be posted on the Reopening DF Schools website. (The website subcommittee will decide where it should “live” on the website.) Thanks to the community members who worked on this project.

     

    • Creation of a “Frequently Asked Questions” document was discussed.
      • TB will keep a running list of questions that are coming in from the community; please send questions you hear about to her as they come in.
      • We will reach out to heads of parent organizations and ask them to send TB questions that they are getting from the community
      • One overall FAQ and potentially 1 for each school building
      • Will be posted on the Reopening website when it’s finished
      • Question re: whether it makes sense to wait until after more direction is received from Governor Cuomo, hopefully later this week

     

    • Additional parent forums being scheduled
      • One for each school
      • Important to communicate how remote instruction (as part of hybrid or if we are 100% remote) will be different this year compared to last spring
        • Much more time in synchronous instruction
        • Teachers have received extensive professional development focused on remote instruction -- tools, best practices, technology help
      • Committee recommended that these forums be scheduled for evening, not daytime
      • Perhaps distribute link to FAQ’s before each forum; or as a follow up after the forum
      • Perhaps create a short summary for each school’s plans

     
    Comments (-1)

  • Communications Committee Progress Report, July 28, 2020 

     

    • Committee focused on how to report results of Reopening Schools Parent Survey to the public
    • Goal is to create a 1-page summary of the very topline takeaways, to be posted to the Reopening website and sent in Superintendent’s update
    • Survey response rate
      • Very high response rate
      • Some parents may have taken it more than once, or some families may have had more than one parent from the family take the survey
      • Hard to know which groups, if any,  were overrepresented because of this
      • Pretty good representation in terms of numbers from parents of children who qualify for Free/Reduced lunch, parents who have needed the assistance of a food pantry, and parents who have a child with a 504 Plan or IEP
      • Thank you to R. Larkins and SPRING for reaching out to parents at last week’s DF Food Pantry and facilitating the survey process for many of those parents
    • Vast majority of respondents reported that they could make any of the 4 potential hybrid scenarios work
    • Technology
      • There are still families, mostly in Springhurst, who need devices for their children
      • We need to understand better the technology needs of MS/HS families who reported needing devices for their children
      • There are still some families that need Wifi in their homes
    • Transportation
      • About half of Springhurst respondents say they do not plan to put their child on the bus
      • Another more detailed transportation survey will be going out, in coordination with our Transportation consortium, after more information about schedules has been announced
    • About 20% of respondents indicated that they would choose a remote-only option if that were available
      • The number here was consistent among the 3 buildings
      • Interviews with some families indicated that this question may have been misunderstood, particularly by respondents for whom English is not their native language
    • Childcare
      • There may have been some confusion about these questions
      • There is a substantial need for childcare for Springhurst and some MS parents on the days that students are not in school
      • It’s unclear how much feasibility of each hybrid option depends on childcare solutions

     
    Comments (-1)

  • Communications Committee Progress Report, July 21, 2020

     

     

    • Review of Parent Forum held 7/20

     

      • Google Meet and simultaneous livestream worked well so we could accommodate more people
      • Recording is posted to the website already
      • 1190 people watched the livestream and 190 people joined the Google Meet

     

     

    • Parent survey sent out 7/18

     

      • Will keep it open till Thursday 7/23
      • R. Larkins will try to capture more SPRING parents at the DF Food Pantry tomorrow and help them complete the survey
      • L. Brady will send one more reminder via K12 email
      • Thanks to the parent volunteers who helped with survey design and data analysis

     

     

    • Tracking and responding to parent questions:

     

      • Discussion about how best to do this while so many questions cannot be answered yet
      • We are archiving and keeping track of questions from all the parent forums
      • L. Brady is responding individually to almost all emails that she receives
      • L. Brady is keeping track of all parent questions and forwarding them to committee chairs when appropriate
      • Committee decided that we will communicate the fact that we are keeping track of questions and some can be answered by looking at the “Committee Progress” section of the Reopening website
      • Will create FAQ section on the Reopening website when we have more answers to provide

     

     

    • Next email communication from L. Brady:

     

      • Reminder about survey with links; deadline Thursday 7/23
      • Link to video of 7/20 Parent Forum
      • Reminder about Reopening website, especially the Committee section for details about progress being made

     

     

    • Creating the Plan that the District must submit to NY State Education Department:

     

      • Our security firm Altaris is working on a template but it’s not clear how this will work
      • L. Hausman will check with NSPRA and NYSPRA (school public relations associations) to see if they have a template or are sharing models

     

     

    • Videos to communicate what to expect, protocols, for each building

     

      • Important so children and parents can be prepared about changes to expect; reduce anxiety
      • Don’t need to be fancy; don’t want to create too much extra work for Principals
      • Must consult with security team about what can be included

     

     

    • Future parent forums -- separated into building-specific groups?

     

     

    • Subgroup to reach out to DF Village (Youth Services Council?)
      •  A. Moss, R. Larkins, T. Baron 
      • Explore a resource that could facilitate matching HS/College students with families who are seeking supervision of younger students during remote learning (paid or volunteer for community service, IB CAS hours)

     

     

    • Next meeting, 7/28/20 2:00pm:

     

      • Survey results and how to share results with community
    Comments (-1)

  • Communications Committee Progress Report, July 17, 2020

     

    • K12 email sent this morning re:
      • Parent Forum on Monday 7/20
      • Survey of parents
      • Link to SED guidance received yesterday

     

    • Working on Spanish translation (R. Larkins will start and M. Heffler will review) of the K12 email and the survey questions
      • R. Larkins will send out to SPRING parents again and offer help over the telephone to parents who need help with the survey
      • Aiming for Spanish version of survey and email to go out tonight or tomorrow

     

    • Parent Forum on Monday 7/20
      • The committee reviewed presentation slides that L. Brady plans to use
      • Will incorporate any survey results as of Sunday at 12 noon
      • Will review main takeaways from 7/16 SED guidance
      • Will review various potential hybrid scheduling options being considered
      • Reminder email about Forum, with links, will be sent on Monday

     

    • More detailed transportation survey will be sent soon; in conjunction with the other districts that we share transportation services with

     

    • Committee reviewed other communication efforts that will come later this summer
      • Communicating “what school will look like” with parents and kids, for each building; in conjunction with SEL Health/Wellness committee to try to reduce anxiety
      • Posting the finalized Plan for Reopening on the District and the Reopening website
      • Communicating the many logistical considerations before schools open

     

    • Committee should use the shared “Communications Worklist” Google Doc of to keep track of other things we’ll need to work on

     
    Comments (-1)

  • Communications Committee Progress Report, July 14, 2020 

    • Collecting Input from Parents, Staff, Students
      • Multiple surveys of parents will likely be needed

      • Immediate need for information to guide plans the District must submit to SED by 7/31/2020 (goal is to get this first survey out by end of this week):
        • Parent preference among various hybrid schedules
        • Extent to which parents are considering not sending children in for any in-person instruction
        • Broken down by building
        • Teacher and staff survey on all of the above

      • Input to be gathered through subsequent surveys:
        • SEL and student/staff wellness issues most in need of addressing
        • Transportation plans (i.e., are parents going to put children on a bus?)
        • Food services (i.e., are parents planning to stop allowing children to buy lunch at school?)
        • High school students -- preference among various hybrid schedules
        • Should we ask all Subcommittees what information they need from parents, staff, and students?

      • Planning for next Community Forum on 7/20/2020
        • Dr. Brady will send out a simple Google Doc asking the committee what parents most want to hear about
        • Goal of forum will be to not cover too much information, just the top areas of concern

     

    • Reopening Website
      • Thanks to website group (Diane, Liz, Tracy) for fast turnaround of the website
      • We will continue to upload committee progress notes as they come in
      • A section re: Education & Health Dept Guidance has been added
      • Advertorial in the Enterprise this week about the new website

     

    • Future work
      • Strategies for social media
      • Strategies to ensure all parent communities are being reached
        • Do we need help with Spanish translation for surveys, videos, emails?
        • Should we try to reach most vulnerable communities via telephone surveys?
        • Strategies to gather input and address concerns of incoming K parents specifically

     
    Comments (-1)

  • Communications Committee Progress Report, July 7, 2020

    • Create New Reopening Website
      • Committee focused on launch of separate website dedicated to reopening efforts
      • Smaller subcommittee collected input from committee members and managed design
      • Should be ready to launch 7/10/20

    • Email Updates to Community
      • Will be sent at least weekly, generally on Fridays
      • More often as needed
      • Will include updates on reopening progress, news from SED and Governor Cuomo, advocacy actions parents can take, links to news articles of interest
      • Emails to be translated into Spanish
      • Will ask partner organizations to forward our emails to their lists

    • Videos
      • From Dr. Lisa Brady
      • Not as frequent as email updates
      • Will explore closed captioning for Spanish translation
      • Possibly one or two aimed at students

    • Future Work
      • Strategies for social media
      • Updates to website to show progress
      • Strategies to ensure all parent communities are being reached
    Comments (-1)