Highland considers social media to drive district news

By Christopher Borro
Posted 2/23/21

One question above all others weighed heavily on the Highland school board’s minds: how do we get more people involved?

Much of their Monday evening board meeting on Feb. 22 revolved around …

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Highland considers social media to drive district news

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One question above all others weighed heavily on the Highland school board’s minds: how do we get more people involved?

Much of their Monday evening board meeting on Feb. 22 revolved around trying to get both students and parents more active in, and aware of, district events.

“You have to get the students excited about being here,” board vice president Megan Allen said. “It’s very transactional…you go to school, do [prom], do [homecoming], go to games and you leave.”

It was that excitement gap that led to the board proposing an increased focus on social media to drum up student engagement. Superintendent Ken Crawford suggested Facebook Live, Instagram or even TikTok as potential means of highlighting school events.

“We’re really fishing right now,” Crawford said. “How do we throw a line out there and lure them to us?”

It’s all a matter of retention. If current students aren’t keen on Highland now, they won’t push for their kids to get involved with it in the future. 

Newer forms of social media could work fine with the kids. Crawford, however, said it’d take different bait to reel in their parents.

Many parents move to the area, he said, but eventually relocate their families closer to Iowa City and away from Highland’s jurisdiction. The board aimed to fix that.

“If you get the students a little more excited about being in the building…you’ll get the parents to buy into the district as well.,” Allen said.

She posited that interesting things happen all the time in school, but they just aren’t promoted often. The aerospace club shooting off rockets. Spanish classes talking to people from other countries.

“There’s all these little things that are going on,” Allen said, “but no one ever knows about them.”

The board examined more traditional media sources, like the district’s website.

“On the web page, you’ve got those feeds, so if you’re not sure and you think [information] might have come out of one of those, you’ve got a one-stop shop,” board member Kathy Butler said.

Board president Nate Robinson said the website consistently gets around 3,000 visits every week. The board also posited Facebook and Twitter as avenues for circulating school announcements.

Newsletters, on a yearly or semesterly basis, were considered as well. However, Crawford said he was worried parents wouldn’t actually read most of the information in a newsletter.

Regardless of platform, one method the board worked out was simple. More showcases of events. More pictures of students. If parents can see all the interesting things their kids are doing, they’ll want to keep up with announcements more.

As Allen suggested, Highland should promote things “outside the box.” For the teachers, she had one suggestion. “You have to start promoting what’s going on in your classroom.”