School Board to work with new motto

By Emily Richmond (contact)

Friday, Feb. 4, 2005 | 11:20 a.m.

While it may not be as catchy as its successful "What happens here, stays here" ad campaign, R&R Partners executives say their proposed motto for the Clark County School Board could be just as effective.

Hired to facilitate a series of community forums and tabulate the findings, R&R Partners lead political and advertising strategist Dale Erquiaga encouraged a "unifying strategy" for the School Board Thursday:

"Repeat What's Relevant: If something is worth saying once, it's worth saying two or three times."

In a 13-page memo, R&R Partners used both its own campaign for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority and "the Trojan horse" as examples of successful "unifying strategies."

The memo goes on to warn School Board members of the hazards of straying off-message.

"Now is not the time to wander off on quixotic quests," the memo states. "Certain things matter to CCSD audiences -- funding, parental involvement, new ideas -- and those are the things that should be discussed at every turn."

To that end, the memo goes as far as to recommend three "messages" for School Board members to use as templates:

The messages were crafted after analyzing the results of telephone polls, seven community meetings and a weekend summit on educational topics, Eriquiaga said. When asked what three things the district could do in the next 10 years to improve the quality of education, the top responses were: reducing class sizes, hiring better, and increased teacher salaries, Eriquiaga said.

When the 2005 Legislature convenes next week, Clark County will join the state's 16 other school districts in pushing the iNVest '05 plan, a $646 million package of programs, services and initiatives for Nevada's schoolchildren.

Erquiaga said this morning that going into the legislative session it is particularly important for the School Board to be focused and concise in its communication with the public.

"This sort of positioning is critical for any governmental body," Erquiaga said. "Constituents, voters and other stakeholders have so much information at their disposal that elected officials need to be laser-like in their focus."

R&R Partners' recommendations are examples of "smart marketing," said Clark County School Board President Larry Mason.

"We need to exercise the opportunities to stand up and speak on behalf of children," Mason said. "If we want to be heard, we need to be clear, consistent and direct."

The "Trojan horse" may not be the most appropriate analogy for the School Board's goals but "it certainly worked at the time (for the Greeks)," Mason said with a laugh.

School Board Vice President Ruth Johnson said she and her colleagues had "a responsibility" to increase their public profile and tell "the truth" about the district.

School districts from across the country are using Clark County as a model of "best practices," Johnson said.

"People need to believe for themselves that the district is a good place to have their kids," Johnson said. "It's a disservice to the community to let them continue thinking the district is bad at what at what it does because we let other people say that it's bad."

The community forums and R&R Partners' research and analysis were paid for using funds from a private grant.

R&R Partners' next step will be to put together a video presentation aimed at increasing parental involvement in schools. A draft of the script will be presented to the School Board later this month. The School Board also voted to move forward with a proposed speakers bureau that would also include district staff.