If you’re a superintendent or school board director in Pennsylvania, you’ve got plans. 

The Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) requires all school districts to complete a Comprehensive Planning Process every three years. The PDE describes it as “a continuous process used to ensure that all students are achieving at high levels.”

High-performing Pennsylvania school districts share nine common characteristics. Chief among these are high levels of collaboration and communication, as well as robust community and parent involvement.

While the Comprehensive Plan is often distinct from a district’s strategic plan, revising either plan provides an opportunity to build a strategic communications that advance your core objectives. Communications planning allows a district to create alignment among these various plans and their embedded tactics, deploy communication resources efficiently, share successes with all key stakeholders and build trust throughout the community.

But how can you build this communications strategy? Fortunately, if Pennsylvania school district superintendent or board director, “you’ve got a friend in Pennsylvania.” The Donovan Group offers a full range of school communications services, including audits, surveys and communications planning. 

You can also gain access to ongoing support—including content writing, graphic design, app development and video production—as you implement your communications plan, 

If yours is a Phase 2 school district (submitting a 2020-2023 Comprehensive Plan by the November 30, 2019 deadline), now is an excellent time to think about your communications needs with regard to that three-year plan. 

If yours is a Phase 1 or Phase 3 district looking to the future or seeking to energize your existing plan, you have a little more time to think strategically about incorporating communications into the next iteration. 

Regardless, please don’t hesitate to reach out if you need any help thinking through how you can best approach your planning processes. 

Liam Goldrick is an associate with the Donovan Group. Based in the firm’s Philadelphia office, he assists school and district leaders throughout Pennsylvania and Delaware.