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About Reynolds Tomorrow:

We’ve become very active listeners 

Last year, the district wanted to avoid the unproductive trap of running a traditional public-involvement program as it developed the budget. The old way to get citizen feedback was to hold a series of public meetings. Usually only a small crowd ­— and often the same voices — shows up.

Using the Reynolds Tomorrow process for the first time in 2011, the district was provided with measurable data on public opinion from more than 900 online survey respondents. We doubt any other school district in Oregon last year reached out to more citizens than Reynolds.

The leadership of Reynolds School District developed Reynolds Tomorrow to be a cornerstone in its decision-making when it comes to big issues. Budget, district planning, and leadership selection are all perfect candidates for our approach. Its use expands access, transparency and ultimately provides accountability to taxpayers in a way that strengthens the district’s interactions with the community and with Reynolds employees.

Citizen feedback provided through Reynolds Tomorrow gave the district important information about community opinions on educational priorities. CFM Strategic Communications (CFM), a Portland research, public relations and public affairs firm, helped the district create and manage the program. There are six steps in the process:

  1. Background information on a key issue is uploaded to a special-purpose website — www.reynoldstomorrow.com — which is separate from the official school district website.
  2. Working with district leadership, a survey questionnaire is developed and then posted on the Internet.
  3. An integrated public-information campaign is launched to alert citizens to the new information. District residents are asked to visit the website and register their email if they wish to participate in an online survey.
  4. When the survey is ready, the district sends emails to those who have registered on the Reynolds Tomorrow site. The public also is alerted through traditional information channels.
  5. When the survey is completed, CFM prepares an analysis of the results and presents a summary to the school board. Results also are distributed to survey respondents, the media and posted on the website.
  6. District staff will review a summary of survey results and recommend actions for the Reynolds School Board to consider.

See Last budget to understand how well this process worked.