How One Utah School Transformed a Reputation Crisis into a Competitive Advantage
[For privacy purposes and due to the sensitive nature of the crisis, the school has chosen to remain anonymous.]
Administrators at a Utah school were facing public scrutiny following allegations raised by a group of parents and former staff members. The concerns included claims of wrongful termination, unprofessional hiring decisions and non-compliance with a recently enacted state law mandating enhanced security protocols in all Utah schools. The situation intensified on social media, notably with the hostile takeover of a PTA Facebook group, which had previously served as a key communication channel for the school community. Additionally, a formal complaint had been filed with the state, accompanied by a GRAMA (Government Records Access and Management Act) request, further escalating the matter.
The school reached out to XL PR for help in managing the crisis and rebuilding its reputation, and stabilizing their enrollments.
Client Background
XL PR quickly dived into research about the school to learn about their history, structure, learning model, and processes, as well as circumstances around the crisis. The team spent several hours interviewing the school’s administrative team, reading documents, and otherwise learning about the accusations; faculty, staff and community member dynamics that led to the conflict; state reviews; the school’s state-mandated improvement plan; previous meetings regarding the conflict; social media posts; state and federal laws and policies; local media; and other pertinent information related to the crisis.
The town has a few thousand residents, and based on our interviews with the school’s team, the town is very intimate, and gossip travels quickly, which exacerbated the rumors around the team.
An analysis of the school’s social media platforms indicated that Facebook was a key communication tool in the community, a finding that was verified by school leaders. Additionally, research on similar schools and interviews with the school’s team revealed that parents wanted to be intimately involved in decision making at the school, and that this was also a key element to the crisis.
The strategy needed to be hyperlocal, participatory, and rooted in transparency.
If the narrative against the school’s leadership continued, trust in the school would continue to erode; the school would continue to lose students, faculty and staff; and the reputations and wellbeing of individuals under attack would continue to be threatened.
Research
Planning
Crisis Mitigation
Hyperlocal News Article - Contacted the local newspaper editor, provided documentation, and worked closely with the editor in response to an imminent news article that was being written in the local newspaper by a friend of one of the complainants.
Board Meeting - Planned and executed a Zoom webinar board meeting to answer questions, which were solicited through social media and school contact channels and submitted via Google forms, and prepared a full script for the meeting to answer pre-selected questions.
Facebook Page - Directed the school team on how to create an official school Facebook page and establish it as the primary social media source for school information and news.
Parent Letter - Wrote a parent letter to explain with transparency about a controversial school decision.
Reputation Rebuild
Media relations - Pitched six proactive stories for local and hyperlocal outlets.
Community Outreach - Built strategy and created print materials for community outreach at a local festival and at a school community event.
Partnerships - Contacted local businesses to participate in a school community event and connected the school with a legislator for a school project.
Social media - Advised on social media strategy and contacted local and state leaders and businesses to participate in a social media challenge.
With the research, XL PR developed a 2-month crisis communication plan. The goal was to increase trust in the school and its leadership and rebuild a positive reputation within the school and wider local community.
XL PR broke down the plan into two parts: Crisis Mitigation and Reputation Rebuilding.
The team identified and prioritized five key publics:
Parents of current and former students
Internal staff (teachers, faculty, etc.)
Parents of school-aged children
School board
State compliance agency
Four key messages built a narrative that explained the school’s full legal compliance and its priorities of student and staff success, community unity, and collaborative and transparent communication. The campaign was planned to be implemented through several channels, including public meetings, local and state mass media, social media, printed materials, and digital materials.
Implementation
Results
The campaign ended successfully with the crisis nearly forgotten and an overall positive community sentiment, including the ultimate goal of stable enrollment rates.
11 earned media placements across digital, print, and broadcast, including KSL, Fox 13, KUTV, ABC 4, and a hyperlocal outlet
4 print marketing materials created for community outreach
53,284 engagements, 2.48 million views, and 6+ million impressions across digital and social platforms for media placements
237 members in new Facebook group
Strong participation at in-person community events with positive feedback
Because of the strong positive image created by the short campaign through media, internal communication, and prep for in-person events, the school was left with a positive sentiment among Utah and the increased knowledge and capability to handle a crisis and rebuild in the future.
When the contract was ending after two months, the school chose to extend for one month to continue with reputation rebuilding efforts. When the contract expired, they expressed their desire to continue.