Kansas City School District Goes from Print go E-mail
E-zines have many uses. Some sell, some inform. Others promote. Still others act as a home base for diversely situated individuals. The Staff Notebook, delivered by the Kansas City Kansas School District communicates and acts as a call to action for its recipients.
“The newsletter is used to document what’s happening in our school district and keep employees informed,” Carroll Macke, communications director The e-zine covers everything from Board of Education decisions affecting the district to health insurance and district updates. It’s a management newsletter, going to everyone from teachers and food service employees to custodians and supervisors.
“From our point of view, it’s always important for us to be able to keep our employees informed about issues that are happening in our district,” Macke says.
But there has also been a very important secondary advantage of educating the educators about issues that affect the school system such as vouchers and charter school programs. “We try to use the newsletter as a vehicle to get our employees knowledgeable about the issues so they’ll take some actions,” says Macke.
What used to be a strictly hard-copy newsletter began electronic distribution last year. Including retirees, the circulation now totals roughly 3,300. But not all recipients receive the newsletter via computer. “Some folks don’t have access to computers, Macke says. ”So the district ships out about 1,500 hardcopies to reach those who prefer that method of communication.
The weekly newsletter, written and maintained by Macke and a freelancer. is distributed through 42 schools and some alternative schools. Distribution is handled automatically to all users on the school district’s system, so no opt-in is required. Hard copies are distributed to the schools where they are needed and retirees who have asked to receive a copy receive theirs via the postal service.
Additionally, the newsletter is posted on the Kansas City, Kansas Public School Web site, where the general public and district parents can access it.
Macke doesn’t track opens but he feels secure that readership of the 36-year-old newsletter is high. Part of the newsletter’s longevity can be chalked up to a hometown advantage.
He segments readers into three categories: The three-second reader, the 30-second reader, and the three-minute reader. “When you write something, the three-second reader is going to look at it and say nothing, the 30-second reader reads the headlines and the three-minute reader reads everything and calls to tell you that they found a mistake,” he laughs.
But that’s not the only time readers get involved. “People e-mail us about what information they’d want to see placed in the newsletter,” says Macke. “That type of interaction has been high. We ask people to submit story ideas as well as information that they’d like to see published.”
Readers also get involved then they submit nominations for Student-of-the Month or Employee-of-the-Month.
Macke has been kicking around the idea of surveying his readership. “I’d like to know how they like receiving the newsletter electronically,” he says. But it’s safe to say he enjoys sending it that way. “It certainly saves staff time.”
