The Pecatonica Area School Board met on Monday, Sept. 15 and discussed and approved communication support for the district's website and social media platforms.
District Administrator Dr. Dani Scott stated that during discussions to come out of the meeting for strategic planning was the importance of communication and branding for the district. Those at the strategic planning meeting really saw a need for a district communication person but knew that it was not fiscally feasible at this time. Dr. Scott found this communication option through CESA 6. The scope of the services would be communication review and revision, content development, graphic design and template, branding support, special projects and campaigns, and print and mail coordinator.
The first option would be 60 hours for the school year for $7,800. The second option was 100 hours for the school year for $12,500 and the last option was an hourly rate of $135 for as many or as little hours as needed.
Dr. Scott had mixed emotions about the service, thinking that it could serve the district in some capacity but was not sure if it was exactly what is needed. She thought it could be helpful in terms of special projects and enrollment campaigns and helping update social media templates and having cohesive letterheads. Dr. Scott didn’t believe they needed the full 60 or 100 hours at this point. The biggest need is the day to day things with social media.
Kevin Jayne felt they should create an ad hoc committee to get the community’s involvement to see what they want the district to use to communicate with them.
“There are a number things that we can do to improve ourselves before we go spend money to have someone to do it,” Jayne said.
He said there is missing data on the websites, incorrect data on other platforms and the calendars are not in sync with each other even though the district is using the application Apptegy that spreads all of the district’s information out on all platforms.
Brian Schlafli asked if there needs to be more things posted on the website and social media platforms. Jayne didn’t necessarily think more just more up-to-date and correct. Recently a post was made about “upcoming events” for the week, pertaining to athletic events. There was missing information and incorrect information as well. There have been people in the community that have complained about schedules that are incomplete essentially for athletics.
“I don’t know what is worse, bad information, misinformation or no information,” Jayne said.
Student representative Maize Theorin agreed that student athletes are seeing their events missing from information and would like people to know so that the community can come and support them.
Grace Knutson asked Dr. Scott if there was anything that is needed right now where the district would want to have the hourly option. She asked if other schools have used this program before. Dr. Scott stated she didn’t know of any other districts and felt that this was a new service. Knutson asked for Dr. Scott to get some testimonials from other districts.
MS/HS principal Dr. Mark Stateler commented there is a transition happening in Wisconsin high school athletics where they are switching their contract system that fed into the district’s athletic website www.pecatonicaproud.org. He said athletic events still sync with it but it only syncs over events that Pecatonica hosts, so since Argyle hosts cross country, the events are not shown on Pecatonica’s website. There has been discussions on how to connect all platforms better. He said it is a work in progress. Dr. Stateler did have students posting sports updates on the social media sites last year and said he will start that up again this year.
Knutson asked if there was a way to share a media person with other schools in the area. She felt that other districts are probably in the same situation as Pecatonica and wondered if Dr. Scott could look into it. Knutson understood that there was no way any one person already employed at the school could take on the task of updating everything on all of their platforms while also trying to perform their duties they were hired to do. She said there are people that go to school to work in/on media platforms and they should reach out to other schools to see if they could share someone in order to find a cheaper solution.
Knutson agreed with Jayne that the board should asked the community what they want and see who is out there that can help the school district, having a background knowledge in website design, marketing, social media, etc.
Jayne stated that he has been vocal about being able to help with the website. He hasn’t heard any response from the district on his offer. He said he may be busy but this is something he believes in and would be more than willing to find the time to get it done.
Knutson asked Jayne if he could come up with some areas of improvement for the district and bring them to the board. He said he could come up with some streamline processes and the right tools to get the job done correct.
Schlafli asked how many hours a week would a job like this cover. Jayne felt that it could be any number of hours. He really wanted to sit down with community members to get a better idea of what they wanted to see from the district to understand what a communication person should be focusing on for the district. Jayne felt they really needed to take a look at the website first then branch out from there.
Reading asked if there was a set number of hours needed for the last option from CESA 6, the hourly rate option. Dr. Scott said there was no set hours that they needed to use; it would be as needed.
Knutson made the motion to contract with CESA 6 for the hourly option of $135/hour for as needed help with Trevor Doescher seconding. The motion passed.
