CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — At the start of the pandemic, Corpus Christi Independent School District started workshopping a new program to allow for better communication amongst parents, staff and administration called "Let’s Talk."
On the CCISD website, parents can find a tab on the right side of the screen labeled "Let’s Talk, Contact Us." From there, they can choose a topic or specific school, and follow the instructions for submitting a question, comment, suggestion, concern, or compliment.
“It quickly helps you get in touch with the right department or campus, that you may have a question," CCISD Director of Communications Leanne Libby said. "So, versus kind of leaving a phone message, or we all get so much email right now, we just found a really efficient means of communication."
Libby said most of the inquiries received by the district are resolved with just one response. One significant benefit of "Let’s Talk"’ is it streamlines the process for communicating with the district.
“This tool gives them that easy, one-click ability to reach anyone in our district, and to make sure the appropriate person is the one that receives the question, or inquiry, or concern, instead of it having to bounce around between multiple people before it arrives at its destination,” said Veterans Memorial High School principal Scott Walker.
Not only does the communication tool make it easier for parents and community members to ask their questions, it allows the district to see when multiple people are asking questions about the same topic, and send out more information that people may be seeking.
“We can kind of start to spot patterns, and maybe we go, ‘oh we need to share some more information about this,’ or, ‘oh, this is interesting, many people have the same question, maybe we need to look at this again,’” Libby said.
“If we’re getting a similar question, we can take a step back and go ahead and communicate that out to all of our grade level parents, or our entire campus, based on what that inquiry is,” Walker said.
Libby said they have seen an influx of people using the contact page when big events happen within the district. Those events have included the start of the school year, when graduation plans were announced or leading up to STAAR testing.
“Any time there is a change, it’s natural to have an increase in questions, so we anticipate this is going to help us really have a smooth flow of communication with our families,” Libby said.
Walker said the communication tool is important for everyone in the district because it opens an easy and direct communication line.
“If we have an avenue for our parents to communicate with anyone from our district, and it’s easy to use, and they can get that timely response to their question or their concern, that just really helps build that relationship,” he said.