Interview with John Helmholdt, Communications & External Affairs Coordinator for Grand Rapids Public Schools
Announcer: Welcome to Inside Michigan Education, a weekly show featuring interviews with community leaders, school administrators, school business officials, and individuals, who are passionate about the future of Michigan education. And now, here is your host for Inside Michigan Education, Rob Huisingh.
Rob Huisingh: Welcome to Inside Michigan Education. This week we are joined in the Foxbright Podcast Studio by John Helmholdt. John is the Coordinator of Communications and External Affairs for the Grand Rapids Public School district. Welcome John, it's a pleasure to have you on our show.
John Helmholdt: Hey! Thank you very much for having me.
Rob Huisingh: John, I always like to have our listeners hear a little about our guest's background, tell us a little about yourself.
John Helmholdt: Sure, well I really cut my teeth in community relations and politics back around the kitchen table where I learned going door-to-door and licking and stuffing envelops and doing work for my dad who ran for a Mayor of Grand Rapids and was successful back in the early 80s. That's where it all started, but it really -- I am also a product of Grand Rapids Public Schools, graduated, went through the whole system K through 12, and really the majority of my carrier was spent in Lansing as a legislative aid working for several different state representatives. Senate majority leader Posthumus and then went and I worked on a congregational campaign, became a Finance Director and a fundraiser, had my own PR Firm for about five years worked for the Chamber of Commerce as their lobbyist for two years and then throughout that process came across this really unique opportunity to really take all of my talents in PR, in politics, in marketing, advertising, media, fundraising, and put it all in one basket with Grand Rapids Public Schools.
Rob Huisingh: This sort of leads us into the next question, what kind of things make up your day on a given day?
John Helmholdt: I'd like to define kind of a profession firefighting, a little pick pocketing, some herd management, cat herding, a little ego management, but, no; in all seriousness, it is very unique in the sense that we are -- we are the third largest district. We have 20,000 students, 3,400 employees and we have a two-person communication office. So we really have a lot on our plate. We handle all of the district's media relations.
So on ah, pretty much, daily basis we are doing some type of media activity whether it's an actual press conference organizing interviews with various TV, Radio, print news or it's setting our media advisory, getting the press release coordinated with one of our private partners. You name it we have a lot of media calls that come on a daily basis, that's just one thing.
Number two, we manage all of the external communications for our district as well as pretty much for the school. So if the school is doing a newsletter. We coordinate the printing and the mailing of all of that. If we are putting together our district newsletter, our website, our e-communications, our automated calls that all runs through me and we also do -- I handle all of the districts legislative affairs, so at the local, state, and Federal level.
We do have a lobbyist that we contract with and so we have a team working with the Board that we coordinate on. We have various Student and Parent Advisory Committees that we manage as well for the superintendent, work very closely with each of the schools and their districts Parent Advisory Groups. Wow, and where else to begin? It is speech writing for the superintendent, it's fundraising, we do a lot of fundraising looking for sponsors for various school activities, for Principal's meetings things like that, that may be of assistance to the school. Then we are also working on some very big picture projects right now with the Centers of Innovation, which is coordinating and creating a new model for public private partnership.
So meeting with the lead foundations, the lead community stakeholders, the lead job providers, and really trying to bring them around the table with GRPS to develop, redevelop, innovate, and transform our schools particularly at the high school level. Some of which you heard this year with University Prep Academy.
Rob Huisingh: That's right, now I noticed that your title includes External Affairs; what is involved in External Affairs?
John Helmholdt: External Affairs is really -- I would put the legislative aspect under that - our lobbying, our advocacy, I what also put our community relations. I mean I do a lot of community outreach, serving on Committees, meeting with neighbored associations, meeting with neighborhood business districts, meeting with the churches. You know our job is to really get out into the community and engage in those external affairs that are designed to build relationships, but also to retain and attract students to the district.
Rob Huisingh: Now, John, what are some of the most pressing issues that are facing our urban schools, today, with regards to communication?
John Helmholdt: Well I would say the perception - breaking down, tearing down that false perception. Too many people have developed perceptions of schools, yet, they have never set foot in a single building. Or we get the comment that says, "Well when I went to school...", Well guess what when most of us went to school, the Internet didn't exist, email didn't exist, cell phone were the size of water melons, the Berlin Wall was still standing... I mean you go down -- I mean the world of education has changed a lot and so all too often a lot of these -- there are these false labels, these Scarlet Letters that get placed by these one-size-fits-all testing approaches that are really unfair and really do not reflect the academic progress and achievement that takes place in large urban school districts day in and day out.
In fact if you look at our progress line, our progress line from an academic standpoint is straight up. I mean if you look -- one of statistics I put out there - 83% of the kids that start kindergarten are not reading at the kindergarten level; meaning they are not even at the starting gate when they first come in our doors for whatever reason that may be. That's just the reality of the situation and you have got to remember we have students from 49 different languages from 70 different countries of every background socio-economically diverse, but we have developed the system to meet all of their needs.
So the beauty is, they come to us and maybe 83% can't read in kindergarten or aren't reading at the level; by fourth grade that number goes from 17% at proficiency up to almost 70%, our progress curve straight up. I would put our school for our teachers against any school in the region, because if you really look at what we accomplish day in and day out it's remarkable, it's outstanding, and it's very unique. It's a different kind of learning environment; we have different challenges, our facilities are not all 21st Century state of the art. We have facilities that are older than my grandmother, and haven't been updated much since.
I mean that's just kind of some of the challenges. So what out communication standpoint is we first and foremost we have got to get out and change perceptions and that challenge with that, of course, is that we are in the information age, there is no one way to approach it, and as I like to say historically the approach has always been, well, we send out information in a newsletter. Well that doesn't cut it anymore. You can't just do a newsletter. You have got to do a newsletter, then you have got to do the note home with the kid, then you have got to do a direct mail piece, then you have got to do an automated call two three times to the parent. You should have an email that goes with it and a posting to the website and, oh, by the way, we have to translate everything in Spanish.
Okay everything we do take twice as long and costs twice as much because a third of our population is Spanish speaking and so we have an obligation to serve these students and their families, and that means making sure that they can understand the information. The other thing that's a challenge is that not everyone is able to read. I mean in Grand Rapids one in five adults are not literate. Therefore, a printed newsletter or that mail piece may not really catch what they are able to grasp.
So we have to got to look at the door-to-door, we have to look at automated phone calls which we just launched for the first time this year. We have got to look at how we can do live phone banks; that is something we also launched this year where we'll have teams of teachers and staff that will chase phone calls about events, about Parent Teacher Conferences, about Count Day, about MEAP testing, about MME testing.
We are trying to get so far outside of the communications box that we once lived in and that many schools districts still live in and maybe in this new 21st Century information age we have got to start doing that, and it's expensive, it's not easy. With limited resources, limited staffing it's challenging, but you know I am certainly pleased to say that we have launched GRPS into the 21st century and going hard and strong right now.
Rob Huisingh: Excellent, excellent. Now there is no question about the fact that Grand Rapids Public Schools has been through some difficult times recently. You have been navigating some difficult waters. How are these issues affected what it is that you are doing and what you are trying to accomplish and what kind of things would you share with administrators who might be going to similar situations?
John Helmholdt: Well we as a district have been making remarkable progress and our test scores have been going up, more schools meeting AYP. We have this new public-private partnership and we put that out in the public, yet, all it takes is a trash can fire or a union mailing that's been done questioning school safety. These are some of the things that have been very challenging. The media has a tendency to focus on the negative and in the situation we have right now during tough fiscal times it's unfortunate that the declining enrollment and the tough budget has kind of put employee groups against employee groups and where everyone is fighting for that last dollar. And we have been without a contract with our teachers for -- going on two years now, and it has created a level of tension and this last year was filled with it.
It is something that you have got a respond when there are false claims that are being made and we have done so very effectively, but at the same point we have got to step back and remember we are a family of educators and I would say to administrators and really I want to across the board step back and think, do you really want to air this laundry in the public? Is that in anyone's best interest?
I would argue no, because the more you do this a tit for tat, a back and forth in the media in the public it's going to further feed that perception problem. It's going to further erode maybe the trust that may or may not be there and it's in the district like ours declining enrollment. The only way we can afford to pay salaries and increases and to improve our schools is to retain and attract more students and so the case for us - the GREA, the teachers union chose to do some direct mail pieces around election time that were focused on school safety and not in light that it was a) accurate nor was helpful to the District, nor did it ultimately really help in the election from their standpoint I would argue, but it didn't helped anyone.
If anything, it sets us back and it's not that the district, the administration don't want to provide very generous raises and for the extra effort and the energy that is put forth by every employee whether it's a custodian, it's a teacher, it's a maintenance member, it's a food service worker. Our staff go above and beyond, by and large everyday.
We want to reward them and we all deserve it, but the fiscal realities prevent us from doing that and we have an obligation to the taxpayers and we have an obligation to make sure that every last dollar is channelled to the classroom to support the children first and foremost. In this instance, I mean I think the administrators need to a) take a step back, take a breath; don't just fire from the hip, don't get too aggressive about it unless it absolutely necessary.
I think one of the best things is to get your key messages together, take the time to develop them in advance, and to develop a communications plan that incorporates the different scenarios that may come from -- if it's a contract dispute or it's some other issue, maybe there was a major incident at a school that you have got to manage - be prepared, and really take the time to develop it and if you don't have a communications person consider looking to outside help. I mean look to either an outside consultant or look to another school district.
Rob Huisingh: Or the ISDs.
John Helmholdt: Or the ISDs; we have all been through this. There are support stuff that's there and even for some superintendents, some administrators maybe they haven't been in a contract dispute or something to that degree. There's a lot of help that's out there.
Rob Huisingh: Alright, what kind of training or certification would you recommend for Districts looking to improve communications? They might not have an on-staff communications person, but what kind of activities can they take?
John Helmholdt: Sure, media training first and foremost. I think that would be true for the Principal's, for the superintendent, for the Board of Education, and don't just do it once do it multiple times; a year, if possible. That repetition in communications is good not only in your messaging but also in your training.
You have got to remind yourself, refresh yourself about the things that you need to be on the ball on for communication. I think that media training is absolutely key because with that whole process not only will you learn what the media needs, but it will also teach you how to stay on the message and that will then trickle into your communications as well.
I think the Michigan School Public Relations Association (MSPRA) is something that we are members of. MSPRA, that's right. They have great tools the kind of how-to's and you don't have to reinvent the wheel every time. So from a training standpoint they have various training programs that are offered though that program. Obviously, the MASB, the MASA, those other administrator associations have various training programs that I would encourage any administrator, any school Board member to take advantage of. They are usually very affordable if not free and they are very helpful.
Rob Huisingh: Well John you are a wealth of knowledge and I appreciate you coming on the show and sharing with what you know and your situation. I hope you will join us again, sometime.
John Helmholdt: Yeah, I would love to; we are very excited about what's going on at GRPS and we wold like to tell our story.
Rob Huisingh: If would to like to learn more about Grand Rapids Public Schools or you have a question that you would like to ask John please call (616) 819-2149. Again, that number is (616) 819-2149. Information on Grand Rapids Public Schools is also online at www.grps.k12.mi.us. Again, that URL is www.grps.k12.mi.us.
Do you have a story or something interesting that concerns Michigan education, if you do, we invite you to send us your thoughts. You can contact us online at www.insidemieducation.com; until next week, this is Rob Huisingh with Inside Michigan Education.
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