Greg Turchetta: Winning at School Communications

In this episode of SchoolCEO Conversations, we speak with Greg Turchetta, the Senior Chief Communications Officer for the Richland Two School District in South Carolina. In this conversation, we discuss the importance of storytelling, how every school staff member can contribute to your district’s story, and the power of transparency in schools.

Greg and his team are responsible for district-wide communication, marketing, media relations, and strategic partnership management for the 29,000 student school district. Before he began his K-12 career, Greg spent 4 years as Executive Director of Marketing and Media for Florida SouthWestern State College in Fort Myers, Florida were he executed a half million dollar brand campaign. Then, before even that, Greg had an award-winning 21-year television news career where he spent 12 of those years managing newsgathering efforts in some of the most prestigious newsrooms across the country including in Fort Myers, Atlanta, Orlando, Seattle, and Austin.

Follow Richland Two School District at https://twitter.com/RichlandTwo and Greg Turchetta at https://twitter.com/NewsBoss

Main Discussion Points:

- How every school staff member can contribute to storytelling and branding [00:31:54]

- Using social media and websites to share the "extraordinary" stories happening daily in schools that the public doesn't see [00:41:34]

 - De-escalation training for teachers as a teacher retention strategy to deal with difficult parent confrontations [00:51:23]

 - Creating an "environment that's more Ritz Carlton than it is DMV" for families [00:42:18]

Quotes:

“Our job is to move the needle and to move it fast, because honestly, in the education space, there's no time to waste.” [05:38]

“Transparency has to be your calling card. You have to do it at all cost. You cannot no comment things. The public takes that as an implied guilt.” [13:20]

“If parents are that fickle, that means we're doing a horrible job of proving the quality of what we do every day.” [41:37]

“Deescalation training is probably one of the best things you can do for teachers right now to keep them in your building.” [51:30]

“Urgency and quality. You have to use urgency to prove the quality of your district. You don't have time anymore.” [52:25]

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