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Brevard highlights communications goals to boost trust, enrollment and partnerships
Summary
The district's Community Connection objectives call for faster, more accurate crisis messaging, more targeted social media and newsletter engagement, growth of Partners in Education revenue and volunteer hours, and marketing to raise enrollment in specialty programs.
Brevard Public Schools communications staff presented the "Community Connection" segment of the district's five-year strategic plan, laying out four objectives intended to strengthen public trust, increase pride in the district, position BPS as a top choice for prospective families and grow funding and support through community partnerships.
Communications lead Ms. Carnahan told the board the district set specific metrics, including 10 positive media stories each quarter and tracking engagement on social media and newsletters rather than raw follower counts. "One of the challenges I've noticed...is the speed sometimes is a challenge because you're dealing with trying to talk to principals and trying to talk to the sheriff's office," she said, citing shelter-in-place, lockdown and evacuation messaging as priorities where speed and accuracy matter most.
The communications team recently contracted a social-media and media-monitoring service to detect spikes in online attention and provide alerts; staff said the service had just been signed and work had begun the prior week. The district intends to use in-person and virtual CTE and program tours, media invitations and targeted marketing to promote International Baccalaureate, Cambridge, CTE, arts and other specialty programs. Ms. Carnahan said part of the strategy is to measure enrollment trends in specialty programs as an indicator of outreach effectiveness.
On funding and partnerships, the presentation separated two revenue buckets: advertising and Partners in Education (PIE). Staff said current district advertising revenue is "almost $600,000" and the plan sets a goal to increase advertising revenue by 25 percent. The PIE program has a goal to increase cash donations by 5 percent and to raise volunteer hours by 10 percent; PIE coordinators will value-donate items quarterly for reporting.
Board members praised the communications staff's outreach and asked the team to prioritize messaging ahead of two district tax measures planned for the 2026 ballot. One board member urged using hospitals and early-childhood programs to reach new families and suggested revisiting the Thrive by 5 outreach effort. The presenters said they will coordinate with student services to track volunteer hours beyond PIE-specific counts.
The presentation generated no formal vote; staff said the plan's last of four goals (operational efficiency) will be reviewed at a future meeting.
