Lifetime Citizen Portal Access — AI Briefings, Alerts & Unlimited Follows
PGCPS reports high language‑access fulfillment and large digital reach as it expands family engagement
Loading...
Summary
Communications officials told the board that language services have fulfilled 99% of more than 16,000 interpreting requests and that district web and social platforms have millions of views; staff outlined plans to expand ParentVUE/Dojo integration, TikTok presence and website AI tools.
Prince George’s County Public Schools communications staff on April 16 reported high language-access fulfillment and rising digital engagement as the district expands outreach to families and stakeholders.
Deputy Chief of Staff Megan Thornton told the Board of Education the communications and engagement teams work to translate strategic priorities into clear, accessible information for students, families and staff. Thornton said the district’s outreach reaches ‘‘more than 132,000 families, 22,000 staff’’ and highlighted a recent state of the schools address and a multifaceted campaign to explain budget challenges.
Denise Douglas, a communications presenter, said language services processed ‘‘over 16,000’’ interpreting requests with ‘‘99%’’ fulfillment between July and March and that the team has translated ‘‘nearly 5,000,000 words across 19 languages.’’ Douglas emphasized the importance of translated special-education materials and noted nearly 1,000 special-education translations (IEPs) had been completed.
The team also reported digital metrics: overall platform views of about 16,500,000 and a homepage with roughly 10,500,000 views; social-media growth included Facebook followers increasing from about 55,000 to 62,000 and Instagram from roughly 42,000 to 59,000 year over year. Thornton and Douglas said the district is working to meet an April 26 ADA Title II compliance deadline for web content and to expand training for school and office web editors.
Board members asked practical questions: how to surface communications on ParentVUE and Dojo, whether the district should expand on TikTok to reach youth, how newsletters and text messaging are tracked, and how to capture school-level stories. Communications staff responded that ParentVUE integration, Dojo enterprise tools and platform-alignment strategies are under consideration and that schools can submit positive stories via internal requests and a user-generated content plug-in on the website.
Max Pugh, web services director, said the district already runs an AI chatbot on the homepage but cautioned about its limits: ‘‘It is has limitations because... it can still give erroneous information.’’ He said the chatbot can guide users through enrollment steps but urged that boosting authoritative web content is necessary so external AI and search engines surface accurate district information.
The presentation closed with staff asking for board feedback on priorities for advocacy and outreach. Board members asked that communications provide continuing updates on the budget outreach and consider ways to push timely family sessions through platforms parents use most.
