At the latest school board meeting, the South East Cornerstone Public School Division had a conversation around how they keep connected with parents and the wider community and what might need to change. Kassandra Lawrenz, communications officer for SECPSD, and Keith Keating, the director of education, talked about the issue, giving the board members information and ideas around the needs and uses of their communications system.
Keating provided the basic information on communication, pointing out a recent visit by four MLAs who serve constituencies in the southeast. During that visit, they answered questions from the legislative members. Information was also released concerning the operations of the school systems here in the southeast.
Keating stated that discussions contained topics like the new school being built in Carlyle, transportation issues, budget and funding needs, and upcoming financial pressures and possible reductions in service or programs.
Other discussions included annual meetings with the Holy Family Roman Catholic Separate School Division board, along with attendance at sessions with other agencies that work in concert with SECPSD.
Lawrenz, meanwhile, provided some of the terms they used to track communication efforts, such as views and shares for social media posts, along with qualitative vs. quantitative efforts in analyzing communication results.
For hard numbers, Lawrenz shared that Facebook was their best-performing platform, with over 3,000 regular followers across the school division. By school, some of the top performing pages were Weyburn, followed by Estevan, Moosomin, Carlyle, and Regina, and then a number of smaller centres, plus followers in foreign countries.
On Instagram, the SECPSD family shared 583 followers, LinkedIn reported 348 followers, and X had 770 followers. Those indicated a mix of public individuals and businesses throughout the southeast and outside of both the region and the country.
Common posts that spread and were shared amongst their followers included topics such as mental health, school highlights and accomplishments, school information, and student and staff recognition and days of importance.
Other methods of communication for the school division included newsletters, the division websites, or a SharePoint, which is strictly used internally.
Those newsletters are sent out monthly and can contain hiring ads, mental health features, important dates, media links and school highlights. The division found that over 8,100 potential readers pick up the newsletters, with about 54 per cent engaging with them.
In conclusion, Lawrenz noted that communications, whether they be external or internal, are a team effort.