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Green Bay Education Association President David Harswick displays copies of the Common Ground newsletter.
By Lori Blakeslee
GBEA public relations specialist The idea to create a Green Bay Education Association parent-community newsletter began with a bad bargain. The idea was conceived in 1995 after the GBEA fought a long battle to preserve numerous permissive items in the collective bargaining agreement. As part of an overall public relations campaign, it was decided to begin a parent-community newsletter. The first issue of the newsletter was published in the spring of 1996, under the name Teacher-Talk. “When the GBEA kicked off its public relations efforts in 1996, the attitude about public education and teachers was vastly different than it is today,” said GBEA President David Harswick. “Whenever our public relations funds are questioned at our Representative Assembly, a veteran teacher will talk about how in the beginning of our program the media and the community had a much different attitude about our schools and teachers in general.” Today Green Bay teachers enjoy working in a community that places a high value on its schools and teachers. Last May, the GBEA and the district conducted a community survey in which 86% of residents rated the district as providing a quality education, and 65% rated the quality of the teachers as very good to excellent. “The parent-community newsletter is a large investment for the GBEA,” said GBEA Executive Director Keith Patt. “The newsletter is produced three times a year: fall, winter and spring. It is mailed to all district families, Green Bay Chamber of Commerce members, and GBEA-Retired members. The annual cost of printing and mailing is approximately $13,000.” Originally, the newsletter was written and designed by an outside public relations agency. But in February of 1999, the GBEA hired its own public relations specialist. In the fall of 1999, the parent-community newsletter was distributed with a new name – Common Ground, Common Voices. Like its predecessor, Teacher-Talk, the newsletter focuses on issues important to the association as well as featuring positive programs that are occurring in the district. Last spring, the GBEA included in its newsletter a reader survey to gain feedback on the newsletter from community members and parents. “Overall we were pleased with the results,” Harswick said. “Eighty percent responded that they read all three issues of the newsletter, and 87% found the newsletter to be valuable.” The survey feedback resulted in changes to the format of the newsletter. The name was shortened to Common Ground, and the layout of the newsletter was modified to differentiate it from district mailings. “While we know that the newsletter is only a part of many ongoing efforts in our community to improve the perceptions of public schools and educators, it was very exciting to see the responses to our survey,” Patt said. “When asked about previous articles they recalled, many respondents mentioned TABOR. It is rewarding to know that our newsletter connected with community members and parents on this issue.” (The Taxpayer Bill of Rights would have resulted in school funding cuts, but it died in the Legislature.) “In addition, the responses spoke to a great desire on the part of the public to receive more information about our schools and teachers,” Patt said. “When our workdays revolve around schools and education issues, it is often easy to forget how important it is to communicate, communicate, and communicate again all the great things that are happening in our schools and how hard our members work every day to make a difference in the lives of children.” Posted January 26, 2007 |