We Love Schools

Carole Dorn-Bell & Joel Gagne
We Love Schools

WE LOVE SCHOOLS highlights success stories in school communications campaigns. We address the issues, obstacles and benefits of communicating with your community in today’s all-access social media-driven world. Subscribe to our podcast for inspiration, best practices and critical industry news.

  1. 09/30/2020

    Dr. Matthew Montgomery, Superintendent at Revere Local Schools

    We talk with Dr. Matthew Montgomery, Superintendent at Revere Local Schools, in Richfield, Ohio. They are fully opened up, unlike his counterpart up in northeast Ohio, Dr. Lloyd, who went fully remote. Here is a link to that episode. He gives us a little perspective of what superintendents are going through, how they're handling being fully open, where their preparations are for being online if they need to go online, and the general challenges that they're now facing in this era of COVID-19. School districts are obviously facing tremendous pressure.  School administrators have been under tremendous pressure since March with very little leadership at the gubernatorial and national level, as well as giving them kind of the support that they need. This hits the schools particularly hard. And this has put tremendous pressure on our school administrators. So we agree with Dr. Montgomery's suggestion that a little kindness does goes a long way when there is any discussion between parents and stakeholders, and school districts, administrators and teachers. We spoke with Dr. Montgomery in an earlier episode about about how to manage a school construction project. We Love Schools is a podcast produced by Joel Gagne & Carole Dorn-Bell that highlights and investigates success stories in school communications campaigns. Through interviews with today’s educational and communication leaders address the issues, obstacles and best practices of communicating with your community in today's all-access social media-driven world.

    23 min
  2. 05/26/2020

    Prepping for a School Year When You Don't Know What It Will Look Like

    The truth is, administrators start planning for the next school year in January and February.  Here we are at the end of the 2019-2020 school year, a year stifled by COVID-19.  And we are still in the dark on what the next school year can and will look like. We certainly encourage school leaders to some time off to take a breath, but not too long. In this episode, Carol and Joel cover four areas to focus on as you continue your school year planning. 1) What are the different scenarios schools are walking into for next year?  We cover three scenarios that are being discussed.  2) Communicate your expectations and what you know. And it still may be "we don't know."  Keep over-communicating, but keep this over many social channels and accounts - Facebook, Twitter, email, etc. 3) Plan out your communication.  Expect it to be much different than in year's past.  And expect it change, so be nimble. 4) Financial conversation.  Ultimately, you will only survive this financial situation when you communicate what is going on to your stakeholders, your parents and community as a whole. We Love Schools is a podcast produced by Joel Gagne & Carole Dorn-Bell that highlights and investigate success stories in school communications campaigns. Through interviews with today’s educational and communication leaders address the issues, obstacles and best practices of communicating with your community in today's all-access social media-driven world.

    14 min
  3. 05/11/2020

    The Looming Fiscal Crisis for Schools: Four Ways to Talk with Your Community About Finances

    In our first of two episodes on the emerging fiscal crisis facing schools, we talked about the 2008 fiscal crisis, the Great Recession, as it was called, and what schools experienced. It is instructive as we look forward to this current crisis and what we might face. In this episode we talk about how schools can best prepare as they work through this next phase of the pandemic crisis. Have a financial conversation with your community.  It is critical. There are still many unknowns about the fiscal crisis headed our way. That includes revenue and expenses. How do you have that financial conversation?  Here are four way you must talk with your community about finances: Schedule it. Develop a calendar and rhythm to your messaging. Broadcast it.  Touch as many mediums as possible. Message it.  Stick to what you know and the facts. Plan it. Show your plan to reflect the new austerity. We will continue to be with you every step of the way throughout the evolution of this COVID crisis on all our social media platforms, this podcast, and our website.  It is helpful to reflect back to 2008. There are some real lessons learned and schools will certainly be looking to that to see how they might proceed. It's just so important for you right now to be engaging with your public about the financial conversation of you're hearing and seeing. Don't count on them to just know and to be aware, but be very real and authentic when you're talking with them. We Love Schools is a podcast produced by Joel Gagne & Carole Dorn-Bell that highlights and investigate success stories in school communications campaigns. Through interviews with today’s educational and communication leaders address the issues, obstacles and best practices of communicating with your community in today's all-access social media-driven world.

    11 min
  4. COVID-19 Crisis: What’s Ahead With Communication

    04/20/2020

    COVID-19 Crisis: What’s Ahead With Communication

    We are so glad to be back again. We feel like I've been on a little bit of a hiatus. And we're sure you have been as well while dealing with the COVID virus. With episode I'm back with my co-host Joel Gagne. We sometimes podcast together on different topics that we see our clients and school districts face. In Part 1, COVID-19 Crisis: Where We Are Right Now With Communication, we talked specifically about how Coronavirus is effecting your communication in your school district.  In this episode, part 2, we talk to about what's ahead, and how to effectively continue communications with your school community.  When things get back to "normal," we need to accept that things are not getting back to normal anytime soon. And maybe not everything should come back. We need to take a hard look at how are we running business, so to speak, the business of schools, and how are we running different initiatives. The school districts that we've seen have the most success are diverse in how they communicate. They are flexible in their approach and have infrastructure to back that up. That's where the change is going to happen. School districts are going to create that type of flexible infrastructure for any scenario that comes up that might impact their learning environment. We Love Schools is a podcast produced by Joel Gagne & Carole Dorn-Bell that highlights and investigate success stories in school communications campaigns. Through interviews with today’s educational and communication leaders address the issues, obstacles and best practices of communicating with your community in today's all-access social media-driven world.

    13 min
5
out of 5
15 Ratings

About

WE LOVE SCHOOLS highlights success stories in school communications campaigns. We address the issues, obstacles and benefits of communicating with your community in today’s all-access social media-driven world. Subscribe to our podcast for inspiration, best practices and critical industry news.

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