Detroit schools' PR: $1.5 million

District hires 4 firms to publicize programs, recruit students; some criticize expense.

by Jodi S. Cohen, The Detroit News, July 26, 2002

 

In an aggressive strategy to promote the Detroit Public Schools and attract more students, district officials have spent at least $1.5 million on public-relations consultants and marketing pitches in the past year.

   More than one-third of the money went toward consulting fees to four firms -- Berg Muirhead & Associates, Nedd/Worldwide Public Relations, Caponigro Public Relations and Positive Impressions -- for work ranging from designing newsletters and the annual report to organizing staff-appreciation luncheons, planning enrollment fairs and promoting the band's trip to the Rose Bowl.

   In a budget-tightening year that saw 700 staff members laid off and schools cutting expenses 10 percent, the four public relations firms also were paid to supplement routine staff duties, including editing the district-wide school improvement plan, attending meetings with newspaper editorial boards and putting together a brochure explaining the district's standardized test.

   The strategy of the school system, with 160,000 students and a $1.3 billion annual budget, is to publicize new programs and recruit new students. Some of the efforts are visible: 15 billboards perched above highways and 50 ads whizzing by on city buses.

   Others are more discreet: Help from consultants to publish bi-monthly community newsletters and to get students to school when annual enrollment is counted.

   "We're in your face about the Detroit Public Schools and where we are," said schools chief of staff Lavonne Sheffield, who is also in charge of academics. "This has helped us maintain our school population and has increased involvement in our schools."

   A campaign specifically designed to increase fall enrollment at schools, including radio ads and summer registration fairs, cost more than $410,000.

   Publicizing the district's academic improvement plan also has come with one of the biggest price tags. The district has spent about $165,000 to print the plan, produce a video on it, rent Cobo Hall for a community meeting, and buy radio spots and newspaper ads to publicize the meeting.

   Other recent expenses include about $81,000 for billboards and bus ads about the schools' summer reading program and a $12,000 deposit for 130,000 magnets with the name of a child's school and phone number.

   Other costs include:

* $66,646 for seven open houses last fall for the new schools.

* $77,900 for efforts to enroll students in preschool and kindergarten programs for the upcoming school year.

* $96,700 for organizing the first phase of the summer reading program, including ads, books and brochures.

* $30,350 for a study on the effectiveness of the district's communications efforts.
   
Supplemental work

   Nedd/Worldwide got the bulk of the work -- nearly $1.1 million, according to invoices and financial records obtained by The Detroit News under the Freedom of Information Act.

   The consultants help the school's communications department, which has a $1.76 million budget and four full-time staff members, including executive director Stan Childress, who has an annual salary of $130,000. The budget also includes funds for the district radio station.

   The public relations costs will take a chunk out of the district's 2002-03 budget, Sheffield said. District officials signed contracts with five public relations firms in late March for ongoing services, with hourly fees for the lead consultants ranging from $90 to $250 an hour. Those contracts run until March 2003.

   A March proposal by Caponigro consultants calls for the district to pay nearly $300,000 for newsletters, media relations and promotional and image campaigns on district programs and personnel.

   Some parents disagree on the wisdom of spending so much on public relations when there are so many needs in classrooms.

   "None of this public relations stuff will change the failure rate," said Sharon Kelso, whose grandson attends Mumford High School. "We don't need a billboard. We need all this money to go into student achievement and teacher training."

   Sheffield argued that the district needs the public relations help to inform taxpayers about the ongoing reform efforts, started in 1999 with the state-led takeover that ousted the elected school board and replaced it with one appointed mostly by the mayor.

   District officials say the strategy has worked during the past year. Although there are about 1,200 fewer students in kindergarten through 12th grade now compared to the previous year, school officials say enrollment would have dropped by 3,000 more students without the recruitment efforts. Officials base their estimates on demographic changes and years of declines.

   The district needed to recruit only 217 students -- at $6,884 in state funds per student -- to pay for the public relations campaign. "We have had far more return on our investment," Sheffield said.

   Angelo Gust, a kindergarten teacher at Cooke Elementary School, approves of the public relations campaign.

   "We were losing students to charter schools and other schools and they had to do something. I don't think word of mouth would have done it," Gust said. "We are starting to turn the corner, but I don't know if it's worth a million dollars."
   
School PR is common

   A public relations program -- whether it's carried out by an in-house staff or a firm -- is considered a necessity in many big and small public school districts as they compete with charter, religious and private schools for students and the state-aid dollars that come with them.

   The Philadelphia school district, with 205,000 students, paid its two public relations firms a combined $730,642 in bills from December until June, according to the Philadelphia Daily News.

   The Dallas Independent School District spends about $2.5 million annually on communications without using any private consultants. The work is done by the district's internal office, a staff of 40 people. The department has event planners, a graphics department and a TV studio with broadcasting on five cable channels for the district's 164,000 students, about the same number as in Detroit schools.

   "We literally have a whole shop rolled up in one," communications director Donny Claxton said. "We're closer to our subject, which saves a lot of time and costs on the production end."

   Royal Oak and Southfield, two of the 53 Metro Detroit districts that accept students from other cities, have budgeted about $100,000 each for recruitment-related publicity.

   Livonia public schools, with 18,000 students, typically spends less than $1,000 annually on public relations consulting and about $15,000 on polling, but the need to throw more money towards creating a positive image is growing in Michigan, Assistant Supt. Randy Liepa said.

   "Typically we do public relations internally, but we do have an occasion to hire someone to help with a specific issue," Liepa said, citing the recent hiring of a consultant to help communicate to the staff and citizens the reasons for the district's budget cuts.

   "You do see more districts putting money into public relations and it's because of the environment in Michigan," Liepa said. "With Proposal A (per-pupil funding) and schools of choice, we want to sell Livonia as a good place to come to school."
   
Money needed elsewhere

   Lillian Scott Jr., vice president of the parent group at Marshall Elementary School in Detroit, disagrees with the amount of money spent on public relations. She would rather see more staff members at her school, and a greater effort to get feedback from parents already in the school system.

   She also said parents are uninformed or learn about events too late. She said she learned about a May community meeting to discuss the district's school improvement plan just three days before the event.

   "You are putting information out there for people to buy into. In actuality, you are not listening to the people," Scott said. "We hear what you are saying, but you are not listening to us."
   

Detroit News Staff Writer Sheri Hall contributed to this report. You can reach Jodi S. Cohen at (313) 222-2269 or jcohen@detnews.com.