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Bloomfield Hills board weighs marketing firm role in strategic planning; asks for RFP coordination
Summary
At a March 17 study session, the Bloomfield Hills Schools Board of Education debated whether to engage Galapagos Marketing to craft mission, vision and marketing language while issuing a separate RFP for a strategic-plan facilitator. Trustees expressed support with conditions to avoid duplicative community outreach and survey fatigue.
The Bloomfield Hills Schools Board of Education discussed a proposal to engage Galapagos Marketing to lead early work on mission, vision, “why” statements and a tagline as the district prepares a broader strategic-planning process on March 17 during a study session.
Board members and administrators said the marketing firm could accelerate work on branding and external messaging ahead of a longer, facilitator-led strategic plan, but multiple trustees warned against bifurcating the mission/vision work from the overall planning process without clear coordination.
Why it matters: The district wants a concise identity package to “bring energy” to the community and to use as a starting point for a year-long strategic-plan facilitation process. Trustees said that if a marketing firm creates mission and vision language before a facilitator is selected, the district risks survey fatigue among stakeholders and the possibility that two vendors’ work will not mesh.
Superintendent Rick West described the administration’s approach as a two-track process: “We would bifurcate the two processes, get our mission, vision, why statement, tagline and then utilize that to motivate our strategic plan,” he said, adding that the administration envisions issuing a facilitator RFP in April and having a facilitator on board by July while Galapagos works in parallel.
Trustees voiced a range of views. Trustee Ebelts said Galapagos appeared suited for branding but cautioned against assigning them primary responsibility for mission and vision: “I think they'd be great for tagline and potentially why statements, marketing related, but not mission and vision,” he said. Another trustee opposed moving forward before the board had a mapped process, saying the district should avoid asking the community the same questions twice.
Board members asked administration to include coordination requirements in the facilitator RFP so that any firm selected to run the strategic-planning process would explicitly accept and integrate work produced by Galapagos, rather than duplicate outreach. Administrators said they would return the RFP to the board for review and would build contract language requiring handoff and collaboration.
What was not decided: The board did not authorize a formal contract award to Galapagos during the meeting. Trustees offered conditional support for engaging the firm and asked administration to ensure the RFP stipulates how the firms will coordinate and avoid redundant community engagement.
Looking ahead: Administration said the goal is for Galapagos to complete its deliverable by August and for the facilitator to begin a 12‑ to 18‑month strategic-planning facilitation process in the subsequent school year. The board directed staff to draft an RFP that requires coordination between vendors and to bring that RFP back for review.
