Anchorage School District communications staff told the Communications Committee on Thursday they will pivot from lengthy monthly checklists to a more intentional storytelling approach tied to the board’s goals, and that the district’s website is being upgraded to improve tagging and distribution of school-level stories.

Why it matters: Board members said many community funders never step foot in a school; communications staff said better, shorter stories will make board goals and progress easier for taxpayers and families to understand.

MJ Collins, a board member who opened the communications update, said the district is "upgrading our web page" and thanked the board for feedback on areas to fix. Lisa Miller, communications assistant director, described work with assessment and evaluation to reduce each board goal’s monthly action checklist from as many as 30 items to a focused set of "about 3 to 5 priority action steps" and said communications will "support that, the story behind that data." Miller said the new board report format will display those priority steps and the status of each.

Miller outlined how communications will amplify those priorities: internal episodes of the Inside ASD podcast for staff, short 60-second external videos with an expert giving tips for families, and longer filmed stories of students and teachers. She described a plan to tag finished pieces so the board goal is visible at the end of each story and noted the communications team will work with assessment and evaluation to surface "resiliency factors"—district strengths identified during recruitment and retention focus groups—to provide consistent framing across messages.

Tony Riley, senior director of community engagement, summarized outreach activity, saying district employees fielded a new team for a recent charity run and that the team "raised over $4,000." He also reviewed upcoming engagement opportunities: an elders-and-youth event and the statewide AFN (Alaska Federation of Natives) conference in Anchorage, where the indigenous education department typically sponsors students.

A question from the committee asked whether legislators could be automatically enrolled to receive school-specific stories. Miller and web staff said the new website backend and SharePoint tagging will make it possible to tag content by school and explore routing stories to legislators who represent those schools; staff said they will work with senior directors and principals to refine that process.

What’s next: Communications staff said the website upgrade is progressing, the new reporting format will appear in upcoming board reports, and the team will pilot short videos and podcast segments tied to specific board goals. Staff asked for patience as the team rolls out the new approach and said they will coordinate with senior directors to enable school-level tagging and targeted outreach to legislators.

Ending: The committee did not take a formal vote. Members encouraged the communications team to proceed and to coordinate with principals and senior directors on content tagging and distribution plans.