(Photo by Douglass Huxley) Christian Hudspeth, communications coordinator for Marietta City Schools, gave the Board of Education an update on the district’s communication strategies Thursday night at Phillips Elementary. Hudspeth said the district is strengthening communication, rebuilding trust and humanizing its district culture through a series of strategic initiatives.

Marietta City Schools is working on strengthening communication, rebuilding trust and humanizing its district culture through a series of strategic initiatives in social media, internal communications, and community outreach, Christian Hudspeth, communications coordinator for Marietta City Schools, said Thursday during the Board of Education’s regular meeting at Phillips School.

Hudspeth said when he began his role in August 2023 he identified there were trust issues with staff and the community, as well as a pattern of unanswered questions and inconsistent communication.

“When I started, some of the things that I heard were that there’s a little bit of a trust issue with staff, (and) we needed to build goodwill in the community,” Hudspeth said. “We were having a lot of questions that were going unanswered … that was a huge problem for us.”

He said one of the central themes of the work he’s done has been to make sure the community sees the real people behind the schools.

“I wanted to humanize the district,” Hudspeth said. “I think it’s too easy, behind a keyboard especially, to just not see the people that are in the classroom every day and working with the kids and pouring their heart and soul into things. So I wanted to bring that element to the forefront.”

He said to support that goal, the district launched a weekly feature called “Talking to Tigers,” which spotlights a different teacher or staff member each week with basic questions and a photo.

“You get to see the faces that are working with the kids, the people that are in the buildings taking care of the grounds, whatever the case may be,” he said. “I think for the most part, people enjoy doing it, and the response has been really good from the community.”

Hudspeth said there were also concerns that athletics had received too much focus compared to academics. He said to balance this, he created a separate Facebook page dedicated to athletics that was run by former athletic director Cody Venderlic and current director Hannah Kroft. He said this allows the main district page to refocus on academics and learning while still celebrating major athletic accomplishments.

“Once I got it set up and running, they took off with it,” Hudspeth said. “I do some athletic stuff, but the majority of it is them, and they do a great job with it.”

Behind the scenes, Hudspeth said he has focused on building trust with staff by supporting their work and helping tell their stories.

“I’ve just tried to be a resource for them,” he said. “Whether it’s creating flyers for the spelling bee participants, showcasing the various things they have going on in their classroom, highlighting students, whatever I can do to help them out and show the work that they’re doing is something that I’ve tried to focus on.”

He said the district is also using live feeds and its website to share concerts and events for families and grandparents who cannot attend in person. He said because of this, the district is seeing steady growth in its digital presence.

He said since August 1, 2024, the main Facebook page is up about 13.8% in followers, with significant engagement in likes, comments, and shares. The athletic page has already grown to around 1,200 followers, and the district’s Instagram has about 1,700 followers, he said. Despite that, Hudspeth said there is still “a lot of work to do” on the website.

He said one of the largest projects he has taken on has been the district-wide newsletter, available in both print and digital formats. It’s mailed quarterly to over 11,000 addresses across every postal route in the Marietta city limits, reaching residents who may not regularly visit the website or follow social media.

He said each issue includes sections for every school, athletics, lunchroom news, photos, and major district updates, often featuring a message from the superintendent or board members.

“So people that aren’t visiting our website or our social media daily might get to see … we’ve gotten a lot of feedback about people enjoying it, even though they don’t have any kids in the district, (for) seeing what’s going on,” he said.

He said Marietta City Schools uses PageFreezer, a social media archiving service.

“Any time you make a post on social media, that company is not responsible for keeping that information,” Hudspeth said. “This allows us, in real time, to link up with our social media accounts and create those instant snapshots … if someone were to comment something that they shouldn’t and delete it 30 seconds later, we have that snapshot.”

He said the tool also supports public information requests by allowing targeted searches across the history of the page.

He said the district has also transitioned from a paid anonymous tip line, costing the district about $1,200 per year to a free, state-sponsored program that serves the same purpose: allowing parents, teachers and students to anonymously report bullying, safety concerns, or potential threats.

Internally, he said the district is working to standardize processes and improve staff communication.

He said Superintendent Mary Schaeffer, who began her tenure in August, now produces a monthly “Tiger Draw” newsletter for staff that highlights important information, requests feedback, lists staff arrivals and departures, and invites classroom visits.

“It’s just something that kind of establishes that rapport between administration and staff, trying to bridge that gap and continue to improve that relationship,” Hudspeth said.

He said one of the most significant changes to the communication in the district has been the adoption of Rooms, a district-wide communication platform integrated with the district website and app.

Previously, he said families often had to juggle multiple apps–sometimes several within the same grade level–making communication confusing and difficult to manage.

“We were all over the place with our communication platforms,” Hudspeth said. “A parent with a kid at high school, middle school, elementary … might have seven or eight apps between sports and second grade and sixth grade and 12th grade.”

He said Rooms centralizes parent-teacher communication, improves moderation and record-keeping, and archives messages similarly to the district’s social media archiving.

“All of those communications are archived, much like the social media is,” he said. “If the teacher has an issue with a parent, they can simply elevate that to an administrator … and the administrator can go in and take a look.”

He said despite being implemented mid-year, which is typically challenging, staff has embraced the change.

“Our staff did an incredible, incredible job,” Hudspeth said. “Everyone was not happy about it, but everyone worked really hard … and committed to it. And, you know, I’m proud of our staff for that.”

He said since the launch, about 80% of their teachers have activated their accounts.

He said 95 of those 133 teachers used the app in December alone, despite December being a light month.

On the parent side, 1,382 of 2,143 students have at least one guardian connected which is around 64% with about 947 of those guardians using the app in December.

“We would like to get that higher … but that is not as bad a number as it might seem,” he said. “No matter what you do, sometimes there’s just some parents that don’t want to hop on board with that.”

Looking ahead, Hudspeth outlined a number of future initiatives he has planned aimed at deepening engagement and telling the district’s story in new ways. He said a monthly podcast featuring rotating guests such as the superintendent, board members, curriculum leaders, building administrators and the athletic director is in the works.

“For someone that wants a deep dive, you know, you can get a 20 or 30 minute conversation in,” he said.

He said a student or alumni version of “Talking to Tigers” to further engage the community, especially alumni, was also being talked about.

“I really like the idea of doing a student or alumni version,” Hudspeth said. “I think that would really engage the community, especially the alumni version.”

He said the district also plans to continue work on Focused and Fierce Awards and align messaging around “what it means to be a Tiger,” as well as ongoing improvements to the website.

Hudspeth said time is the main challenge, given the scope of current and planned projects, but emphasized the district’s commitment to moving forward.

“The trick is finding the time to do these things,” he said.