NCSPRA Winter Workshop Details

The 2025 NCSPRA Winter Workshop is a professional development event designed especially for school communicators and curriculum & instruction leaders. It will be held Friday, December 5th from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at the NC Department of Public Instruction in Raleigh. The Winter Workshop will include timely, targeted PD to help school communicators work with C&I colleagues to improve recruitment, retention, student performance, and public perceptions about your schools.

The registration fee is just $60 for the first person from each organization and $40 for each additional person from the same organization. The cost includes lunch that will be prepared and served by NC's top high school chefs who are also the national culinary champions. We encourage you to attend with one or more of your C&I colleagues.

Registration Deadline: Tuesday, November 25

This interactive session, presented by Mark Dessauer, will explore how school communicators can work with Chief Academic Officers to improve public perception of NC's schools through strategically changing the narrative. Drawing from Pillars 7 and 8 of the NCDPI Strategic Plan—"Celebrate the Excellence in Public Education" and "Galvanize Champions to Fully Invest in and Support Public Education"— participants will learn how to work together to build a stronger story around accountability (well ahead of the reporting) and use proactive storytelling that highlights daily victories, student achievements, and educator excellence. The session will highlight practical frameworks for working together to identify key audiences, align communication strategy and stories well ahead of school performance reporting and how to combine data and stories to help shape the local narrative. Through collaborative exercises, participants will develop actionable strategies to plan their communication calendar and school performance strategy. The session also will share examples of how communications and curriculum have worked together to help parents and community leaders better understand the progress, growth and challenges (with solutions) in their schools.

Developing a retention strategy is no simple task. But with all of the ingredients you need to cook up an award-winning retention strategy -- creativity, focus, determination, and heart — you can carve out a unique path to reduce attrition and provide long-term sustainability for your school. You know how to woo new students, and with a retention strategy in place, you can continue to woo families day after day, month after month, and year after year. When you invest fully and devote yourselves to continue to try new ideas, innovate, and work together, you can cook up a one-of-a-kind recipe to meet all of your enrollment, budget and retention goals. And you’ll likely create a closer, stronger, tight-knit school community along the way. Hear stories from school leaders as to how they developed and implemented their retention strategy at their school. Presenter: Scott Delleville

Effective leadership requires communicating with clarity and confidence, whether you're explaining a new teaching method or responding to an emergency. This session, presented by Jackson Bynum, will explore how to apply the same principles of transparent communication that build strong family partnerships around academic goals and student progress to navigate your district's most challenging moments. We'll discuss how communicating the "what," "why," and "how" can prevent small issues from becoming larger crises around sensitive topics like behavioral policies, academic integrity issues, natural disasters, or school emergencies. Join us to share your perspectives and learn practical tools that will empower you to lead with empathy and care, especially when communication is most difficult.

This session will equip school communicators and C&I leaders with guidance on how to use storytelling and engagement to reach your community and statewide policymakers. Participants will learn how to work together to identify, craft, and strategically deploy authentic stories that showcase the transformative work happening in their schools every day and the best ways to engage policymakers from County Commissioners to the Governor for their support (or just education). Building on the strategic plan's emphasis on celebrating educational excellence, this session provides guidance for building partnerships between PIOs and Chief Academic Officers to create compelling narratives and initiatives that connect with policymakers. Participants will leave with proven strategies for engaging policymakers through stories and data points to better understand and support their local public schools. Presenters: Geoff Coltrane & Mark Dessauer

NCSPRA is an Exemplary Chapter of the National School Public Relations Association (NSPRA). For five consecutive years, NCSPRA has been honored with the prestigious Mark of Distinction Award for delivering outstanding professional development to members and to school PR professionals throughout the country.