There’s bad financial news—such as K12 budget cuts—and then there’s how you deliver it to your community. As the ESSER deadline approaches, many superintendents and their teams are now facing the challenge of talking about layoffs, the elimination of programs and other potential spending shocks.
And while some leaders may be inclined to wait to deliver the bad news until they have a plan to move forward, taking that course also presents the risk of blindsiding staff, students and the public if they end up getting the information from other sources, the Edunomics Lab at Georgetown University warns.
“The trick is to move quickly to share tough financial news in a way that doesn’t erode trust with staff and parents,” the think tank’s K12 finance experts say. “It turns out most of our instincts aren’t helpful here.”
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Several years ago, in another age of budget cuts, leaders at San Diego USD in California set a new bar for outreach and transparency, the Edunomics Lab points out. They launched an interactive tool to ask parents and other members of the public about their spending preferences. Here are a few tips from the think tank:
- Don’t soft pedal. And avoid business terms such as “deficit,” “efficiency” or “productivity.”
- It’s a mistake to talk about finance and not mention kids. It’s not enough to commit to protecting schools, staff or classrooms. Leaders must be clear they are focused on students.
- Leaders must invite communities to weigh in on different options, even if some seem like bad ideas. Handing down an already-baked plan makes people feel the district is doing something to them, not with them.
- Building trust requires sharing regular, honest updates. Communication with employees and parents is an increasingly critical part of the job.
