The Storyboard

The campus communication team at Playa del Rey Elementary are the winners of the Communicators of the Month trophy for January 2025! Some of the reasons they won the trophy include:

• Hosting multiple Pride Assemblies throughout the year, recognizing and celebrating over 100 students.
• Building their school brand locally with yard signs.
• To inquire about getting yard signs for your school, please contact Hailey Borden.

• Posting regularly on social media with content to showcase students, staff, and community members.

Who will take the trophy away from them next month?

As we approach February, a month often associated with love and appreciation, it's the perfect time to reflect on what we cherish most about our schools and communities. Sharing these passions through compelling stories allows us to connect with our audiences on a deeper level, fostering a sense of belonging and pride. Whether it's an inspiring individual, a beloved tradition, or a cherished program, showcasing what we love is a powerful way to build stronger relationships with our communities. In this edition of The Storyboard, we'll explore how to capture and share these stories, highlighting the many things we love about our schools.

Highlight the individuals who make the school special – students, teachers, staff, volunteers, community partners.

• Burk Elementary’s Staff Highlight in their newsletters.

• Pioneer Elementary showcases Student Citizen of the Month.

• Playa del Rey Elementary thanks the Watch D.O.G.S of its campus.

Pro Tip: We understand your school communities are filled with exceptional people, so it can be hard to get all of them. Rotate between showcasing students, staff, and community members each week to get a nice balance between them. You can repurpose this content in your newsletters, too!

Showcase unique learning experiences, innovative teaching methods, and student projects that demonstrate a passion for learning.

• Campo Verde Bio Med CTE teaching South Valley students about their program.

• Neely Traditional Academy’s “Operation” style STEM learning.

• Patterson Elementary harvests its garden and enjoys a salad.

Highlight the core values that guide the school community and campus culture. Show how these values are lived out in daily life.

• Towne Meadows' Timmie Ticket Winners in newsletters.

• Mesquite High celebrating student achievement and exceptional characteristics.

• Greenfield Elementary works with students to be “Kind Gators.”

Pro Tip: This best practice can serve two purposes - showcasing your incredible people and highlighting what makes you, you! Showcase how your school values are practiced and celebrate the people who live them out.

Looking for things to share in your communications? The CCT Shared Drive is a great place to find content you can share from district departments. From the Campus Communications Team Shared Drive, click on the "Dept. Content for Schools to Share" folder to view the materials available to you.

Also keep an eye on the "CTE Month - February" folder for content coming soon!

Have something going on at your school and want the district communications team to cover it? Fill out the GPS Photo/Video/Story Coverage Request form to help us promote all the great things happening at your schools!

Also look out for an updated document from Tristan Chavez on how to get more news about your school on your website.

We've found that collaborations on social media platforms work extremely well in improving reach. If the district creates a social media post about your school, we want to collaborate with you! Just make sure to accept our collaboration requests. We also enjoy resharing your content when possible, so make sure to tag us in your posts and we'll be happy to share them on the district accounts.

For more information on social media, you can schedule a social media assistance session with Triniti-Lynn Thornhill to learn strategies for planning, creating, and optimizing your content.

PDFs are an excellent way to get information out to parents, but they're not so great for e-readers or people with visual impairments. To help us all stay within ADA compliancy, please do not use PDFs in online communications like newsletters.

For more information about ADA compliancy and accessibility, check out this Communications Best Practices guide found in the CCT Shared Drive > Training Materials > New Website.

Our February content theme is 'We Love...' Next month, we'll utilize our communications to highlight all the things we love about our schools, from the people to curriculum to culture. To do this, we'll highlight the people, programs, and events that make our schools great!

Having trouble thinking of content to post on social media? Check out this social media content calendar that details the many opportunities worth sharing on social media throughout February.

— Rollo Reece May, Psychologist and Author