Elections Go Better When You Tell Your Story All Year Long

ISSUE 62 | FEBRUARY 18, 2004

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All these steps require dialogue, discussion, debate. Campaigning just in the election season isn't sufficient. Voters need context knowledge. What are you and your board doing to provide that context and demonstrate need? Here are four practical suggestions for making your case persuasively

1. EXPLAIN YOUR BUDGET TO CITIZENS

Ken Hall and the folks at School Services, sponsored by the Girard Foundation and the Fiscal Crisis Management and Emergency Team (FCMAT), have clarified the messy matter of school budgets. Motivated by a belief that citizens can, indeed, get the message when it's presented well, they have developed a method of presenting and explaining your budget that makes sense. Dubbed the "User-Friendly Budget Display Software," the system has been road-tested all over the state. They launched it with figures from the 2002-2003 school year, and have updated it for this year as well.

You need only load your budget specifics, and youll be able to quickly generate reports that distill key factors and illustrate results. Well-designed explanations target the interested citizen, parent, school board member, or principal. The software offers site-level budget specifics-as long as your team loads your local data properly-which is a priority for site council parents and principals who must be concerned primarily with their own school. And School Services staff loads statewide budget numbers. They update those numbers several times during the year to make sure that users have only the most current financials in hand.

School Services is distributing this software free; order here.

2. COMPARE YOUR DISTRICT'S FINANCIAL RATIOS TO YOUR NEIGHBORS

The Ed-Data Partnership has put together a free, easy-to-use set of financial analyses and reports. It spans the spectrum from bond measure and parcel tax histories to financial statements that go back ten years. Most powerful, perhaps, is a query tool that lets you compare your district's finances with those of selected sets of other districts. You could select all the districts in your county, or just districts with ADAs like yours. You could even select districts with teacher salaries that match yours. The ability to see how your district compares to others, and to view your key financial factors over ten years time, will help you tell your story to a puzzled public.

The intrepid souls at Ed-Data have recently added one new feature: a view of teacher-salary schedules, benefit schedules, and supplemental salary schedules. Although the most recent information available is from the 2001-2002 fiscal year, it is nonetheless valuable information. To get started, go to the home page, find the "Report" panel, and select "district" to find the reports youre seeking.

Or, via this link, you can go directly to district-level reports, and then click on the drop-down icon adjacent to the "Select Report" item near the top of the screen. (If you use this link below, be sure to copy and paste it in its entirety into your browser.) Note that the Ed-Data selection process requires that you first choose the county, then the district, and then the report you want to view.

3. COMMUNICATE YOUR RESOURCE NEEDS IN YOUR ANNUAL REPORTS

Your annual accountability reports are a perfect place to explain how the fiscal crisis has affected resources, teachers, afterschool programs, student clubs, sports, and facilities. Give this information factually, candidly, and clearly, in a voice consistent with the purpose of accountability reports. Your narrative should, of course, refrain from lobbying and should not mention upcoming elections.

You can also compare current-year to prior-year conditions here. When publicly owned firms report results in their annual reports, this is the way they do it. If economic times are tough, shareholders expect management to acknowledge that, and to explain how they're responding. If long-term investment is being curtailed because of short-term needs, the public wants to understand the consequences.

Superintendent Larry Maw of the San Marcos USD has used his accountability reports this way with considerable success. You can read about his strategy in this issue our newsletter, "SARC Bites." (Note that San Marcos is a client of School Wise Press, where the Owl lives and works.)

4. PUT TODAY'S FISCAL CRISIS IN AN HISTORICAL CONTEXT

John Merrow, the broadcast journalist whose work you may have heard under the moniker The Merrow Report, has just completed an hour-long television feature on California's declining support for education. Its called "First to Worst" and can be previewed here.

After viewing the show when it aired earlier this month, even this old coot was impressed with the sad story we all know much too well. The Prop. 13 tax revolt is the backdrop for Merrow's tale, but he begins by showing Santa Monica-Malibus superintendent John Deasey leafletting parents as they dropped their children off at school. "Don't forget to vote," he urged them. He didn't have to say why it mattered. His parents already knew that the parcel tax measure up for election in June 2003 was a make-or-break matter for the district. It barely passed, attaining a few hundred votes over the two-thirds majority needed. The drama of this election is only the first of many in this extraordinary piece of feature reporting. Read reviews here or here.

If your computer includes audio capability, you might enjoy this KQED-FM interview.

You can order the one-hour program in DVD format here.

CONCLUSION

Tough times call for hard facts, and smart ways of sharing those facts with your public. If you make full use of the tools at hand to tell your district's story — from financial reports to annual school and district reports — you're sure to have an easier time. The common elements of a good story require design and writing that really shine. However compelling your districts story may be, you should avail yourself of help in telling it well. The next time you turn to your voters or your parents for help, they'll be better prepared to put your pleas in perspective.

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