An independent audit of all district- and building-level communication at Tahoma School District was conducted by the National School Public Relations Association (NSPRA). The district recently received the full audit report, which includes a total of eight recommendations, along with suggested action steps, best practices and examples from across the country. The results of the audit were prepared by an NSPRA auditor who reviewed websites, newsletters, social media, videos and other forms of communication, and also conducted a series of focus groups to hear from students, families, staff and community members to hear direct feedback as well.
The report has been shared with the School Board and the focus group participants, and is available for our community to read here.
District officials decided last spring that the time was right to conduct a full communication audit because Tahoma has been in a time of transition -- at the time of the audit, the School Board was working to craft a new five-year plan; Superintendent Mike Hanson was nearing the completion of his first year of leadership; the communications office was preparing to transition to new leadership; and the district was continuing to adjust to impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The next step for Tahoma’s Communications Department team is to develop a long-term strategic communications plan, using the recommendations from the audit as a framework for that plan. Auditors from NSPRA state that this “is a long-term effort” and that most successful districts focus on just a few of the recommendations each year. While the team cannot tackle all eight full recommendations at the same time, the department will give attention to most of the recommended areas during each year of its long-term plan.