Leadership Matters March 2014

Outreach

Community outreach recipe: Salt the food By Superintendent Gary R. Tipsord LeRoy Community Unit District 2 from a representative group of those who will be impacted by the initiative. Be willing to bring in parents, community leaders, employers -- and don’t forget the kids.

All schools, regardless of size or geography, are impacted by the manner in which their community engages in the process of educating children. It is important to view this relationship as the “community” and not just parents. We have to reach out to the community in its broadest sense rather than more narrowly reaching out just to parents. The rationale is pretty

Share your vision and ask for honest feedback. You have to be willing to accept the answers to the questions you ask. The determination of questions is no small task, but rather the

most significant portion of verifying your desired state. This is where you find out if your desired state matches the values of the community. If you are not willing to throw it all out, don’t engage in conversation with this group. The obvious hope is that you are already closely aligned with the values of the community and will only have to make small changes to clearly align to their desires. If not, be willing to either start over or create a compelling argument to shift their thinking. Be transparent and

Gary R. Tipsord has been at

simple: The community group is larger than the parent group. If you are to gain significant support for any initiative, that support must come from as broad a group as possible. After all, it is the community that will fund what we do as an organization; that funding does not come from parents alone. Additionally, the broader the support for any initiative, the longer that initiative will remain in place and the more significant the effort will be to make it successful. So how do we make the engagement possible and successful?

LeRoy CUSD 2 since 1990 and has served as the district superintendent since 2007. Mr. Tipsord received his specialist degree from Eastern Illinois University and was a part of the first ISAL cohort. He also serves on the Governmental Relations committee for IASA and is involved in the Vision 20/20 initiative.

provide time: Once you get to a position of support from your small group, push the message to your community in the broadest manner possible. Be sure to strategically create the message so that it represents your desired state in a manner that hits the mark (aim small, miss small). Utilize social media as you see fit for your district, as well as using your website and community-wide meetings. When it comes to social media, determine what is appropriate for your district but also realize that many of our stakeholders will engage more frequently through social media that in many other ways. You can provide 24-7-365 access to your desired state through your district’s website. There is no better way than through the website. If you want to drive people to your message, couple that message with student-centered postings so anyone who visits to see the student-centered stories also will be exposed to your message.

Celebrate and access talent: There are school districts in our state that are ridiculously talented and purposeful in their efforts. Whether they are like you, near you -- or even your biggest rival -- be willing to engage with them in conversation about what they do, and why they do it. While you may not be able to do exactly what they do and your motivation may be different, to ignore the excellence of those around you is irresponsible. Know your desired state: Engaging in the conversation about your desired state takes time and is sometimes controversial and difficult, but if you really believe it is valuable, then invest consistent with how you see the value of the desired outcome. You have to know what you desire before you begin to advocate for support from the community. If your team does not deeply believe in the “ask,” how can you expect your community to believe in it? Be willing to ask: Once you have crafted the desired state of your initiative, be willing to seek input

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