LM December 2015

students fighting, cursing, or worse yet….making out! The thought still gives me chills. Tackling the Issue (one week before the first day of school) As we met as a leadership team, we made the intentional decision to not only provide solutions, but to create a marketing plan that would be followed along the way. Very quickly, we were able to come up with a workable plan to house our students in various areas of our other two buildings. Obviously, our teachers were going to be moved and inconvenienced throughout the district. How would they react? The plan was put in motion to call a meeting with union representation and any teachers that could make it the next day. It was at this point that I called Mike Chamness at the IASA to ask him for direction and media statements. I had a statement e-mailed to me the same night! The next morning, we held an open and honest conversation with union leadership, and then with 75 teachers that had been locked out of classrooms at the elementary school. In no

As the media began to emerge on scene to report the “Horrible Mold Attacks Local School” story, they found our high school students working alongside teachers and custodians to set up our classrooms during the summer. They interviewed our coach and students, and the message was simply that at “Tri- Valley we work together.” Stories aired and we immediately posted all of them to our Facebook page and on Twitter. We had 4000 likes, shares, re- tweets, and positive comments by the end of the day. The tone had been set and left little room for dissension. After the move, our teachers little time to spare. We took pictures of the kindergarten rooms that had transformed the English wing at the high school. The sign outside the high school read “Welcome all Vikings Big and Small.” We posted all of it to our Facebook page and Twitter creating a narrative of positive collaboration and student focus. The media outlets began fighting over who could be here on opening day to see the community response. Our mold issue had become an unlikely opportunity. The First Day of School Let me begin by saying that our building principals had communicated wonderfully to our parents about parking, drop-offs and protocols on the first day. Our cheerleaders and football players were in uniform to greet our youngest students as they came to school. It was honestly hard not to become emotional watching our cheerleaders take pictures with our Pre-k and kindergarten students and then arrived to begin setting up their classrooms with

uncertain terms we explained the problem, the temporary plan, and asked if there was willingness to work together to make this work for our kids.

“Sharing our successes and failures help all of us to move forward. I recognized that in moments of stress, we tend to react rather than take the time to game plan how we communicate. In this instance, I firmly believe that our strategic communication created a narrative that led us to a meaningful outcome that everyone can be proud of. “

At that point, the union president stood and said: “Our reaction will dictate how our community reacts to the situation, we can make this work.” I almost fell over! We left the room united and ready to move forward. Executing the Game Plan I am a firm believer that narratives and images create lasting perceptions. We met with our football and cheerleading coaches to ask for help. The football team agreed to help move all furniture from the elementary school to our other buildings and to set up all classrooms. The cheerleaders would help on the first day. We then released our statement simultaneously to our parents, teachers, community, and officially to the media. Our building principals communicated to all teachers in their respective buildings and a narrative of “Tri-Valley Works Together” became the overarching theme. We realized that consistent communication was going to be a critical component of the overall plan.

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