3 lessons from school redistricting we can all use
Written by Niki juhasz
People hate change.
It makes us feel uncertain, uncomfortable and like things are out of our control. And that’s not just coming from me – that’s directly from Dr. Joseph Ciarrochi, author of “What Makes You Stronger: How to Thrive in the Face of Change.”
And this fact is really, really important for our work – because to best serve kids and families, we often have to lead innovation – also known to your families and team as change.
Here at Forthright, we’ve done a lot of research and work around tricky topics. Today, we're going to talk about one of the biggest changes a school district can make: redistricting.
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How Families are Feeling
When we've looked at redistricting efforts across the country, we've found key themes that are true for districts of different sizes, regions and personalities. Here are the key trends we're seeing in 2023.
Parents and caregivers feel like their children have faced enough uncertainty. Between pandemic-era school closures, navigating the new frontier of remote learning and a return to in-person classes, students (and their loved ones) have had to manage a lot. Parents are concerned about how even more change will impact their kids – and thus when it comes to redistricting, may have an automatic reflex to resist it.
Different information in different places leading to confusion. Often when we work on projects that involve big change, we see conflicting information on school district websites, social media and news reports. This can lead not only to confusion, but also anger and frustration.
Your community wants to feel heard. We've seen it time and time again. In many cases, when parents want to participate in a meeting or share their perspective, they can't attend the board presentations or in-person feedback sessions because of their work schedules or child care conflicts. In other instances, they simply aren't asked for their feedback. We've heard parents and caregivers say that they simply want to know their district had considered their perspectives.
Parents have specific concerns, like transportation, they want you to consider. In conducting media scans and across our work, we've found that the possibility of longer commutes (and as a result, less time together as a family), separating siblings, missing out on extracurricular activities, cost and being separated from loved teachers are all major concerns for parents.
How to Build a Positive Campaign
So what do we do about all of this? Good communications means listening to concerns, and then addressing them during your campaign. We recommend the following three best practices:
Always start with feedback. To ensure your listening process is equitable, we recommend offering both in-person and virtual feedback opportunities for families and the community. For the in-person options, schedule them for several different times during the day. For example, a parent who works the evening shift won’t be able to attend a 6 p.m. listening session. And as always with any community listening, be sure to include a free child care option, food and transportation assistance during these sessions as well.
Start with the benefits for students in messaging. As always, we recommend that you share clear, consistent messaging with parents and caregivers about how change benefits kids. We recommend creating core messaging and repeating it over and over again throughout the process.
Show that you’re listening. With any major change campaign, you should be ready to embrace any feedback you get from parents, and pivot if need be. Address your audiences’ priorities in your messaging, telling them how you’re (positively) incorporating them into your plan. Break down what you’re doing to address what you’re hearing from them. For example, if you’re hearing that parents are worried about extracurricular activities, such as band practice, share about the great extracurricular opportunities they will experience as part of redistricting, or even add a band option at the new school.
School communication is about building healthy relationships, prioritizing trust, listening and open communication. When you start with these steps, maybe change…doesn’t have to be so hard.
