#SchoolPR Insights Blog

A new communications director walks into the role with a strong instinct for storytelling but no formal training in crisis response. A veteran superintendent knows the community inside and out but has never had to defend a budget decision in front of a hostile room. Neither gap is unusual, and neither is easy to close through on-the-job trial and error alone, especially when the stakes of getting it wrong land on the whole district, not just the person in the room.

That’s the space Donovan Group’s Communications Academy was built to fill.

Rather than a single workshop or a one-time webinar, Communications Academy is a structured program designed around the actual situations district leaders face throughout a school year. Here’s what districts can expect inside it.

• Foundational Communications Strategy. Participants start with the fundamentals: how to build a communications plan that aligns with district goals, how to identify the right channel for the right message, and how to set a tone that builds long-term trust rather than short-term attention.
• Crisis Communication Training. This module walks through how to respond when something goes wrong, a safety incident, a controversial board decision, a public complaint that goes viral. Participants practice drafting statements under time pressure and learn how to coordinate messaging across staff, board members, and media.
• Bond and Referendum Messaging. For districts anticipating a ballot measure, this section covers how to frame a campaign around community benefit rather than institutional need, along with the specific messaging cadence that tends to build support over the course of a campaign timeline.
• Ongoing Peer Support. Beyond the core sessions, participants join a network of communications professionals and district leaders from other schools, giving them a place to ask questions and compare notes long after the formal training ends. That network often becomes as valuable as the training itself, since few resources match hearing directly from a peer who’s already handled a similar situation.

Districts don’t need every leader to become a communications expert overnight. They need a shared foundation that holds up when the pressure is real. Communications Academy gives district teams that foundation, one built from situations districts actually encounter, not theoretical scenarios.

Want your team ready before the pressure hits? Sign up for Donovan Group’s Communications Academy to see how the program builds that foundation.