Stephen Joel’s article, “Pivot Points and the Legacy of Leadership,” (March 2018) hit home for me.

He deserves thanks for sharing his deep experiences and words of wisdom about LEADING THROUGH DIFFICULT TIMES WITH A POSITIVE SPIRIT AND CONVICTION to do his best in every situation thrust upon him. I was particularly moved by his words as we are experiencing difficult fiscal issues, and in a small town those issues can become quite personal.

Joel’s article helped me craft my leadership response in a fashion to promote civility and professionalism in all we do.

CHARLES M. (MIKE) HANSON II
SUPERINTENDENT,
HILL CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT 51-2,
HILL CITY, S.D.


Civility and Education
Congratulations to David Gamberg on a beautifully written piece, “Our Impact on Civility in Communities,” in your April issue.

I couldn’t agree more with his points about having effective communication, especially in regard to civility permeating throughout education.

KARRIEANN L. DAMON
SPECIAL EDUCATION TEACHER,
GREENPORT UNION FREE SCHOOL DISTRICT,
GREENPORT, N.Y.


Community Relations
In the April issue, I saw frequent uses of terms dealing with community relations: effective superintendents dealing with reputation; a toolkit to help communicate to key stakeholders; reasons to support the good of the whole; projecting a desirable political image by using Twitter; management models for nonverbal communication; and ways to monitor a district’s impact.

The latter, a Social Media column (“Analytics to Monitor Your District’s Impact”) by Chris Gaines begs the question: What do people think about their schools? Do parents have different opinions vs. non-parents? How does a school CEO learn these opinions? And how do those opinions contrast with the hoped-for opinions projected by the school board as to the public’s perceived value of schools?

This column delivers an important message. It can stimulate readers to consider values of their district’s efforts in social media and their communication strategy overall.

I am sensitive to the topic of school-community relations in publications that serve the leaders in public education. I worked for more than 25 years on behalf of schools in that field.

Conclusion: An excellent edition.

AL HOLLIDAY
RETIRED EDITOR,
JOURNAL OF SCHOOL PUBLIC RELATIONS,
CAMP HILL, PA.