Planning an Effective Communications Campaign

1. Planning an Effective Communications Campaign

2. The Presentation: • Tips and Tactics you can use for: - Ongoing Communication with your community - Talking points regarding the proposed Amendment Items

3. Getting Started • Four Steps to Effective Communication: • Research • Planning • Implementation, and • Evaluation Each is integral for ANY communications campaign

4. Research • Provides the facts and talking points for any communications campaign • Research done well, takes some time. • What can we do to arm ourselves with the facts (when there is no time to do original research)? - OPR (Other People’s Research)- Newspaper/TV Opinion Polls, Phi Delta Kappa-Gallup Annual Surveys, Focus Groups

5. Planning • You need to determine: - Precise and Measurable Goals - Who are your Audiences? Parents, Staff, Seniors, Elected officials, “Twenty-Somethings,” Unaffiliated Voters, Non-School Age Households, Organized Labor, Homeowners Associations, Businesses and Allied Groups. • How can They be Reached? • Who is an Effective Speaker? • What is the Timeline/Calendar of Events?

6. Planning • Make a list of all upcoming events in which you can have a presence. • Create opportunities if none exist (Open Houses, Town Hall Meetings) • Put together “information packets” for your schools to distribute on “Open House” nights. Use all types of media; including print, audio and visual. • Provide training for key elected officials, district staff and community leaders who are willing to “debate” the issues at public forums. Community leaders serve as excellent impartial third parties!

7. Planning • Prepare “Op-Ed” essays and distribute them to EVERY group that has a newsletter, web site, or communication channel of some sort. Don’t ignore new technologies such as viral marketing. This will be the year when Gen Xers come out to vote. • Customize messages for the audience • Engage enlightened businesses and get them to advocate this position to their employees and customers. • Consider purchasing media through “PACs.”

8. Implementation • Plan the Work; Work the Plan • Schedule Activities to Build Momentum

9. Evaluation • The most effective method of evaluating success is Election Day Results. • If this is an ongoing campaign, mechanisms need to be developed to monitor progress towards building public confidence. • Conduct occasional polling, perhaps in conjunction with other community groups. • Engage higher education in research efforts • Be careful to understand the difference between feedback and scientific data.

10. Remember • No matter how you “spin it,” we are only as good as our lowest achieving student. • The challenge remains to maintain public trust as we serve all our children. • We must make 100% believers out of our public. Otherwise, the same challenges to our governance will come back again in the form of a different question.

11. Talking Points for Amendment 5 • The Florida Constitution requires each and every proposed amendment to state the financial impact of the proposed item. This proposed amendment would create a tax loop hole of $9 billion without a clear plan as to how the shortfall would be made up. • The title of the proposed amendment does not inform voters of its chief purpose, and suggests that it is just about school property taxes. • The Plan forces the largest tax increase on the state in exchange for a property tax cut that most won’t see.

12. Talking Points for Amendment 5 • The proposed amendment will create uncertainty within the small business community. No one knows how much the sales tax rate will increase or what services will be taxed. • There is across the board opposition to this proposed amendment from agriculture, education, business and health-care, indicating thatbroad concerns with the initiative. • There is a lack of transparency, the true impact is not known

13. Talking Points for Amendment 7 • The title of the proposed amendment “Religious Freedom,” is misleading. It suggests that it creates a safeguard for religious freedom when, in fact, that safeguard already exists in the state constitution. • Unlike public schools, Amendment 7 does not require that private and religious schools be held accountable for the use of the tax money. That would be left to the Legislature which, thus far, has been reluctant to impose accountability measures on private institutions receiving public tax dollars. • Many believe the passage of Amendment 7 would violate one of the basic tenets of the American Democratic system which is the separation of church and state.

14. Talking Points for Amendment 9 • These proposed amendments will limit public schools’ ability to provide the foundation that supports the classroom teacher. • The 65% proposal is an attempt to draw attention away from the fact that Florida’s public schools are woefully under funded. By pretending to do something to help by mandating 65% of funding go to instructional needs, backers hope nobody will notice that Florida remains one of the lowest states in per pupil funding. • 65% of inadequate is still INADEQUATE!

15. Talking Points for Amendment 9 • No one knows how the legislature will define “in the classroom funding.” The last time they did this the discussion excluded such essential personal and services such as school nurses, counselors, librarians, transportation, food service, teacher training and curriculum, administration, and plant operation and maintenance.  If the "65% proposal" were enacted, all of these areas would be seriously damaged by budget cuts. • The 65% proposal sounds to good to be true, because it is. This proposal lays the groundwork for the argument that schools wouldn’t need more money if they just use existing funding more efficiently.

16. Talking Points for Amendment 9 • While education experts agree that teachers deserve to be paid more and that we need better funded classrooms if schools have to shift money around, they will be trading one set of problems for another. • Local school boards strongly oppose the 65% rule because it’s a rigid one-size fits all mandate that creates red tape for schools and takes local control away from communities. School board members are elected by their communities because they are in the best position to decide what local schools need.

17. Talking Points for Amendment 9 • It is unknown how this proposed amendment will affect charter schools. However, the proposal does raise some interesting questions about how charter schools would comply especially if the Florida School of Excellence Commission, rather than the local school board, approved the charter application. • 65% means that some school districts will have to privatize school services and turn them over to for-profit companies. This means that school bus drivers, security guards, secretaries and others will become minimum wage jobs with high turnover and these folks won’t get to know our kids.

18. For More Information and Brainstorming, please contact: Merrie Meyers-Kershaw,APR, Fellow PRSA Director, Parents, Business and Community Partnerships Broward County Public Schools (754) 321-1970 merrie.meyers-kershaw@browardschools.com