EFFECTIVENESS OF THE COMMUNICATION CHANNELS AMONG ALL STAKEHOLDERS WITHIN THE BOND PROGRAM

Objective

The objective of this section is to determine the effectiveness of the District’s communication of the Bond Program and progress to community members and stakeholders.

Scope and Methodology

To meet the objective, all avenues of communication, including public presentations at Board meetings, CBOC activities, District website postings, newsletters and billboards were considered. During the process of this examination, Total School Solutions interviewed Board members, members of the Citizens’ Bond Oversight Committee, and District staff.

Communication channels and public outreach were among the topics of discussion in these interviews.

The purpose of these interviews and the review of relevant websites and data were to examine the processes and systems used to convey information about the bond program to interested parties. These processes serve as a measurement of the effectiveness of disseminating information among parties involved and stakeholders in the bond program and its operations.

These processes and information also indicate the effectiveness of communicating to the school site communities and the community at large.

Background

To facilitate communication regarding the West Contra Costa Unified School District’s facilities program, the District provides information about the District and the facilities program on three separate websites:

 West Contra Costa Unified School District: www.wccusd.net

 Bond Oversight Committee: www.wccusd-bond-oversight.com

 Bond Program: www.wccusdbondprogram.com

To facilitate access to bond information and the oversight committee, the District’s website provides links on the front page to the Citizens’ Bond Oversight Committee and Bond Program websites. Additionally, the District’s webpage includes information about the Facilities and Bond Program and Operations Division. Included are updated staff directories as well as additional links to the CBOC and Bond Program websites, recent Board presentations, previous performance and financial audits, current school construction projects and project status reports

A review of the CBOC website indicated that information about the bond and facility construction programs was current, and included relevant information, community meeting dates and schedules, and meeting minutes. Additionally, the District prominently posts notices of upcoming Facilities Subcommittee and CBOC meeting on the homepage of the Districts main website.

The facilities and bond program page of the Operations Division section of the website includes links to active Bond program projects; plans, budget information and status reports, pictures and presentations, as well as information about all construction projects and relevant information about upcoming projects. A new edition to the bond program webpage includes copies of the flyers produced by the District’s public relations consultant. These flyers are produced for and distributed to the school and business communities where bond projects are occurring and include a description of the project, timeline, and contact information. These flyers are limited in the information they provide, but include contact information for the construction manager where interested community members can obtain more detailed information about an ongoing project. Including them on the bond program website provides access to this information to the larger WCCUSD community as well.

Links to the bond program website are included on most of the District’s school site webpages, which is an effective means for providing timely and relevant information to the parent community about the overall construction program. For school sites where there is an ongoing bond project, more specific information and status updates were posted on the school websites as well.

As noted in the Local Capacity Building Program section of this report, the District contracted with J. Majors & Associates from July 1, 2012 to June 30, 2013 to provide community outreach services to inform the local, small, and minority owned businesses about upcoming bids on the District’s construction projects.

Jacqueline Majors indicated that she also regularly attends city council and neighborhood meetings throughout the District to provide information to the communities and neighborhood councils as appropriate. During the 2012-13 year, she created and distributed promotional flyers to the community regarding the following projects:

 Portola Middle School Demolition Project

 Coronado Elementary School Community Update (2 updates provided throughout the year)

 New Walter Helms Sports Field & Landscaping Project Community Update (2 updates provided throughout the year)

 Portola Middle School and Castro Project Community Update (4 updates provided throughout the year)

 Nystrom Elementary School New Campus Community Update

 De Anza High School News Alert (2 updates provided throughout the year)

A review of local media coverage during the 2012-13 year indicated that the District received coverage on various issues in the Contra Costa Times, the El Cerrito Patch, and Richmond Confidential, a new online new service produced by the Graduate School of Journalism at UC Berkeley for, and about, the people of Richmond, CA. The coverage includes education, culture, politics, etc., and “anything that happens that people need to know about.”

Board members interviewed during the course of this review reported that District staff routinely provides a Project Status report for the Board, which includes the most recent construction and project updates. Board agenda items and back up material is available to the public for all these status reports.

The Superintendent publishes an e-message each month on a topic of importance to the District.

In 2012-13, there were three occasions in which the e-message included information regarding the Bond program. The October 2012 edition entitled What Our Students Deserve included a brief review of the Measure E ballot measure, as well as a thank you from the Superintendent for the ongoing support from the community. The December 2012 edition entitled Grateful for Support for Education included information about the successful recent election and the passage of Measure E, allowing the District to continue to rebuild schools and move toward equity in all District facilities. The January 2013 edition entitled Assessing Our Priorities included a review of successfully milestones reached by the District, including the bond program. Messages are on the Communications page of the District website. Additionally, the District has a Community Resources guide on the Resources tab of the home page of the District website. The Community Resources page does not include new information about the Bond program, but does include links to the CBOC and Bond program web pages.

Observations

 The District Superintendent publishes a monthly e-message and includes information about the bond program from time to time throughout the year. Archived message are included on the Communications section of the District website.

 District staff provides regular updates and presentations at Board meetings and Board Facilities Subcommittee meetings, which often include slideshows and discussions regarding the bond program and ongoing construction projects. Board meetings are televised and materials are available to interested members of the public.

CITIZENS’ BOND OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE AND REVIEW OF MEETING