Communicating through a campus closure - Fine Point Communications

As we continue to assess the appalling damage from Hurricanes Helene and Milton, dozens of schools have yet to return to normal operations.

Destroyed roads, piles of flood debris, inadequate drinking water and other unresolved issues continue to keep these campuses off-limits, weeks after the storms.

For leaders of these schools, October has been a terrible trial. For those of us invested in independent education, the suddenness and extent of the closures warn of what any school could face at any time.

And for school communicators, the situation highlights a lesson learned in the early days of the Covid pandemic: A closed campus makes people hunger for connection with their school.

Community members want to know how everyone is faring through the emergency, whether faculty and staff are all right, when classes might resume, and what they can personally do to help.

The Head of School is the face and voice of the institution in such a moment. Yet the responsibility of keeping everyone connected and informed lies ultimately with communications staff.

Building on tips learned through Covid, Helene and Milton, this issue of Refill examines how communicators can anticipate such a call to action and prepare ahead of time.

What’s in your go bag

Our first tip: Create at least one dedicated backpack for crisis communications. This “go bag” should hold several materials useful in an emergency, including:

An older, relatively disposable laptop or tablet computer, along with power cords. WiFi ability is a must; cellular connectivity, as on some iPad, Chromebook and Windows models, is even better.
A printed, generally recent list of students, current parents, faculty and staff. Each entry on the list should include cell and landline numbers and email and home addresses.
Printed log-in instructions for key cloud-computing elements, such as emergency communications applications, the website provider, social media accounts and the learning management system
Printouts of any holding statements, scripts, checklists and/or other instructions related to crisis communications
Copies of the school’s employee and student handbooks (we recommend printouts, although these could be pre-loaded on the computer)
A copy of the school’s crisis procedures and emergency response plan (same as above)

The go bag sustains the school’s ability to communicate widely, even if on-campus servers go offline. Feel free to add any other items appropriate to that task — even protein bars! (Keeping people connected can really work up an appetite.)

Should a school have multiple bags — say, one at the communications director’s home and another on campus that goes with communications office staff during every emergency drill? Why not!? Here, redundancy is a benefit.

Can you hear me now?

Hurricane Helene pointed up communications’ weak link: Vulnerable infrastructure can cut off a school from the rest of the world.

Toppled trees took out most of Western North Carolina’s fiber optic systems, which broke internet, cellular and telephone networks.

After that experience, we recommend that schools look into satellite internet hubs as a worst-case option for a few administrators. Starlink gained a lot of attention after Helene, but other options exist, too. The IT director is likely the best person to explore what’s available.

Electrical outages also merit consideration; computers won’t run long without being recharged. That’s why the go bag should hold printed materials, rather than rely on digital ones.

And don’t overlook the merits of an old-fashioned phone tree, a proven way to connect with a far-flung community.

Share what you can

The school that provides information quickly after a crisis will hold trust better than the one that stays mum. In a time of anxiety and pain, transparency is a virtue.

Of course there will be a gap between what your leadership team knows and what you are prepared to say. But the broader that divide, the greater the opportunity for rumors to run ahead of facts, which will create a real headache for administrators.

So plan on pushing out a steady stream of information, whether through regular email updates or a constantly updated page online. Holding statements will buy time at first, but ultimately, updates will be necessary. A school’s emergency response plan should reflect this expectation.

Thankfully, Blackbaud and Finalsite’s cloud web and email servers were unaffected by the hurricanes. The same held true for social media systems. This made the job of strengthening community a whole lot easier.

As long as school communicators themselves had internet service, they could publish website pop-ups, social media infographics, emails and text-only web pages with must-know information, such as the on-the-ground state of affairs. These were profoundly helpful and reassuring to school families.

Consider all your constituents

When a school closes its campus, the people who need information aren’t only current families and employees. Alumni and prospective families will have questions, too — and theirs won’t necessarily overlap with the interests of others.

Should development and admissions staff deal with these? Or should the questions fold into the communications office’s work? The answer will depend on the school. Either way, though, administrators should anticipate this appetite. An information protocol for community members needs to be part of emergency-response planning.

Helene and Milton coincided with the start of admission season, which forced the rescheduling of open houses and other admissions events. Informing families of the changes was relatively straightforward — as long as internet connections held up.

Here again, it’s good to consider fallback options for when such systems go down. Is it worthwhile, for instance, to print monthly contact lists of prospective families for the go bag?

And the broader community deserves attention, too: After the hurricanes, news outlets that typically ignore independent schools were suddenly interested in sharing campus updates.

Media outreach, for instance, helped schools less affected by the storms learn about, connect with and assist schools that were in greater need.

What’s new at Fine Point Communications

With the school year now in full swing, the season of professional development is upon us.

Fine Point Communications recently contributed to webcasts that offer anytime PD:

The Mindful School Marketing podcast sat down with our principal, Scott Butterworth, to discuss crisis communications. The episode focused on next month’s election, but we also talked about key tips for crisis comms, why schools benefit from transparency and how to clear institutional blind spots.
ICGS has a new Streaming Channel for members, collecting dozens of short videos on topics that serve the vital work of girls’ schools. Scott’s segment focuses on the tricky topic of school statements.

And we have several trips planned in coming weeks to meet school officials and discuss communications solutions.

We are a sponsor of next month’s National Association of Episcopal Schools’ Biennial Conference, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Scott will join Kirsten Adams, head of school at St. Stephen’s and St. Agnes School, and Henry Broaddus, president of the Church Schools in the Diocese of Virginia, for a workshop on crisis management on Friday, Nov. 15.

The following Monday, Nov. 18, we will be in lower Manhattan with the NYC Independent Schools Communications Professionals, which will examine how firms such as Fine Point help communicators expand capacity and expertise.

After that, Scott will help judge the annual Brilliance Awards competition. (Hey, there is still time to submit your entries!)

Looking ahead to 2025, we head in January to Myrtle Beach, S.C., for the Heads Network’s Annual Conference. And in February, Fine Point will return to New York to sponsor the Educating Girls Symposium, presented by the International Coalition for Girls’ Schools.

In all these ways, we are thrilled to advance the important work of independent school communicators!