Board hires communication consultant

By Barbara Brown
The North Branch School District hired a communication consultant to help district staff determine whether they are communicating effectively with the different groups involved in the schools.
Bob Noyed calls himself a public relations and strategic planner for school districts.
Noyed, who spent 15 years as a communications officer for schools, now is spending time with about 20 different groups inside and outside the schools to determine the way the district keeps in contact with others.
The process could be referred to as a communications study, Noyed said last week.
He said the philosophy is similar to that of a financial audit. Although the district is not fulfilling a legal requirement with the communications examination, its a way to check the health of its communication style and find where the gaps are.
ìI have high praise for school boards and superintendents who do this,î Noyed said. ìEven if they do it with other [consultants], they are saying ëTell us what you thinkí and that can sometimes be risky.î
Noyed met with parents, community groups that work with the schools, support staff, bus drivers, teachers and other employees and volunteers to get an idea of what they like, and dislike, about the way the district communicates.
The meetings, which took over two days, ended last week and Noyed said he will spend the rest of the month organizing and analyzing what he heard.
By the end of the process, Noyed said he expected to have input from more than 100 people.
ìWhen you ask people to tell you what they think, they will tell you,î Noyed said.
He said not only does the study tell the district how its communication style is working, it also will show how well the district connects with people who have kids in the schools and makes them feel like the can be involved in the schooling process.
ìItís very much like how a corporation connects with its stockholders,î Noyed said. ìEvery body in this community has an investment with these schools.î
He is expected to present a two-part report to the school board at its April meeting.
Cost to the district for the study is $6,500, according to Noyedís contract.
One part of the report will lay out for the board and Superintendent Dr. Robert Stepaniak what Noyed was told in his interviews.
The second part of the report will take all the things the district currently uses to communicate and offer an analysis of how those methods work or do not work and what the district can do to improve.
Noyed said North Branch is among several school districts in Minnesota and Wisconsin that have commission communications studies.
He said he completed similar services in Annandale, Winona and West Bend, Wisc., recently, but that other districts may use other planners besides him for similar services.
ìItís a way for the district to get a baseline understanding of how well, how effectively, it is communicating.î

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