Craig Hockenberry: Top Five Effective Ways to communicate with your Board

 

After almost eight years of being a Superintendent in two different districts I wanted to take a minute to share the top five ways that I found have been the most effective.  So, here we go! These are in no particular order.


 

Number One: Weekly newsletter.  I would send an email newsletter that highlighted several very important points for the week. The points included; people I met with, instructional topics, challenging conversations I had with employees, sports, and upcoming announcements.  I also put a very important section called HEADS-UPS.  (I think this was the only section they read!)

 

Number Two: Board Text Alerts. Some things can wait, some things cannot. The things that could not wait such as a huge fight, someone passed away, a teacher walked off the job, a principal got arrested they need to know those right away.   This is when I created an emergency text alert that just went to the members of the board.  This avoided them from hearing about serious situations in isle 12 at the grocery store or at the local post office.  Text alerts were among my favorite ways to reach board members and keep them in the loop.

 

Number Three: Boardwalks.  This was a unique way to meet with and communicate with 1-2 board members at a time by giving them tours of schools.  We would announce these visits so that everyone knew it was just a visit with no specific purpose other than visibility and relationship building.  During these boardwalks I would take board members to places they had never been and introduce them to many of the behind the scenes employees such as cooks, bus drivers, and custodians.  During these boardwalks I would get many opportunities to communicate with board members and visually show them projects we were working on that they may have only have heard of in writing. 

 

Number Four: In person meetings. I would invite members of the board to catch-up monthly through one-on-one coffees at a local restaurant or grab breakfast, lunch, or even dinner.  This was challenging and I had to be careful not to leave one out. If you show too much attention to one others get very upset.  So, I would keep a schedule and make sure to hit all five board members before the end of a two week rotation.  In person meetings give board members a chance to open up in a different forum and you can get some authentic feedback. 

 

Number Five: A phone call.  I kept a log to make sure I reached out to each board member two times on the phone call during each month this gave us a chance to be free of public records and could just have a conversation about how things were going.  We did not discuss decisions and we stayed away from the important work it was just more of a check in and touch base. 

 

So there you have it; a weekly newsletter, phone calls, text messages, boardwalks, and in person meetings.  Doing this throughout each month and being very deliberate and strategic will mean you will have at least twelve times in a month where you have communicated with all five of your board members. 

 

By Craig Hockenberry  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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