Show Notes: 

Read our original research projects to find out What Milennial Teachers Want, how everyone benefits when school comms pros have A Seat at the Table, and how school communications benefit when Supers, CTO’s and Comms share Common Ground.

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Episode Transcript:

Welcome to episode 31, Season 4 of the SchoolCEO Podcast. I’m your host, Eileen Beard. Hopefully you’ve already listened to episode 30 this season, an encore presentation of our interview with NSPRA’s 2025 Presidents Award Winner Lesley Bruinton. But speaking of NSPRA, I wanted to share some of my thoughts about this year’s seminar in Washington DC. 

1. A surprising number of school comms folks describe themselves as introverts. I had this same conversation with a number of attendees because I also consider myself an introvert. Mingling with strangers at a national conference can be a bit nervewracking for us. But the thing is, introverts are usually excellent strategic communicators. Why? They tend to be thoughtful and analytical. They also tend to be very good listeners. Which means, they tend to be in tune with stakeholder wants and needs. What’s more, even though some of you may not be comfortable speaking about yourselves in a room full of strangers, having a purpose and a cause moves many of you to speak passionately about your districts and the field of K-12 education more generally. The discomfort is worth it to you. I think it’s a good reminder that we all have different strengths and weaknesses, and a good team learns each other’s strengths and plays into them. 
2. Which leads me to my next takeaway. Incorporating student voice into your school communications was of much interest at this year’s seminar. New Kent County Public Schools, VA started a student communications internship program to empower their own student voices. They shared that ensuring it’s done well is largely about picking the right candidates, providing ample training and scaffolding responsibilities. But, they specifically said not to overlook introverted students for the role. New Kent put one of their extroverted interns on collecting and creating content at in-person events while they gave writing assignments to one of their quieter students. It’s about playing to students’ strengths. 
3. Here’s something else I heard at the conference: “Hospitality is not always about people, sometimes it’s about processes and platforms.”  In their presentation on Customer Experience as a Brand Differentiator, Crown Point Community Schools in Indiana talked about streamlining their enrollment process—they decreased the number of steps from thirteen to three—to improve their customer experience and by extension, Crown Point’s brand. 
4. Another quote that jumped out at me was: “It has to be bigger than a job. It has to be a lifestyle.” In their talk on Setting the Stage for Successful Recruitment and Retention, Alexandria City Public Schools, VA shared how they recruited talent from across the U.S. by showcasing their school culture and the town of Alexandria over salary or benefits or other stats. This makes a lot of sense. According to SchoolCEO’s own research on what millennial teachers want from a job, Geographical location ranked highest followed by school culture and leadership. Our respondents indicated that when it comes to making career decisions, student performance and career advancement opportunities were less important. I’ve included a link to that study in our show notes if you want to see some more of our insights on recruiting millennial teachers. 
5. So let’s circle back to playing to people’s strengths. Another big theme at this year’s conference was Interdepartmental collaboration. The best comms teams thrive because they have a close working relationship with leadership. A SchoolCEO study done in conjunction with NSPRA backs this up: School communicators are more effective and less stressed when they have the Superintendent’s ear and a seat at the decisionmaking table. Crown Point’s enrollment process became an instrument of hospitality because their comms team worked closely with the tech department to debug and steamline their website. They worked closely with admin to improve families’ interactions with the front office. Alexandria City worked closely with their HR team to survey their employees and retool their employee wellness program for improved staff satisfaction and retention. And our very own Greg Turchetta even talked about how Tech, Comms and Supers can all work better together in a presentation with Loudoun County Schools based on another SchoolCEO original study. Finally, in a knockout presentation on Bringing Your Strategic Plan to Life complete with pop quizzes and prizes, the York County School Division of VA’s Superintendent and PR & Comms Officer shared how they collaborated with their entire staff to sell their vision, mission and values to their community because quote “Every employee is a piece of the puzzle.” 

Honestly, I attended so many more great sessions than I can mention here. I learned so much and I met so many amazing people. I’ll probably share more in the coming weeks, but for now the big, big, big takeway from this year’s seminar was we’re all better together.