Review Agenda Item
Meeting Date: 6/17/2022 - 7:00 PM
Category: School and Community Relations
Type: Info
Subject: ASK ACPS Board Brief
ACPS 2025 Strategic Plan Goal:
Goal 4: Strategic Resource Allocation
ACPS will strategically provide differentiated resources and supports to schools and departments.
Goal 5: Family and Community Engagement
ACPS will ensure that all families and community members feel welcomed, respected, and valued.
Policy: KBA - Requests for Information
Funding Source or Fiscal Impact (where applicable)
File Attachment:
220610_Board_Brief_Ask_ACPS.pdf
Stategy Report_Ask ACPS.pdf
Agenda Item Summary: The Office of Community Partnerships and Engagement is proud to provide an update regarding the implementation of a comprehensive customer relations management (CRM) system that serves as a reliable resource for families, community members and staff who have questions, feedback or concerns to share with the division.
Background: Ask ACPS was launched on October 8, 2021 to make it easier for families and community members to submit questions and comments on a range of division-wide issues and get a timely response. In March 2022, the Office of Community Partnerships and Engagement welcomed the new External Relations Specialist Cindy Centeno to help fully implement and expand the system to not only respond to inquiries and share stakeholder feedback across departments, but to also identify areas of opportunity for additional outreach, messaging and customer-service training.

Since the launch, families, staff and community members have submitted their inquiries and comments to Ask ACPS by emailing ask@acps.k12.va.us or by visiting www.acps.k12.va.us/ask to complete a feedback form available in English, Spanish, Amharic and Arabic. To date, 400+ inquiries have been fielded by our community engagement team on a variety of topics ranging from school enrollment, safety and security, and summer learning to strategic initiatives, building maintenance and human resources.

Under the management of the external relations specialist, Ask ACPS will become recognized as a go-to resource across stakeholder groups. To that end, a comprehensive outreach plan for Ask ACPS (attached) has been developed. Highlights of the plan include:

● Outreach
○ Create and/or review existing language and/or talking points related to Ask ACPS
○ Develop outreach materials and plan in collaboration with aligned staff for distribution
○ Update the Communicate with ACPS webpage (in alignment with the new website rollout)
○ Leverage social media, in-person and virtual community events, back-to-school mailings, email/newsletters, and physical collateral to provide consistent messaging and promotion of Ask ACPS as a reliable source for students, staff families and community members
● Growth
○ Develop templated responses and establish a resource library to source information when responding to cases
○ Create and/or review existing public information, FAQs, one-pagers, infographics, etc. with aligned staff to ensure they are up-to-date
○ Explore enhancements to the CRM system (e.g. text messaging, social media) as a platform that align with and meet our stakeholders’ needs
○ Increase use across our diverse community by ensuring that the platform and resource is as accessible as possible (e.g. multilingual materials and platform experience, tech-friendly web form and input channels)
● Data & Reporting
Recommendation: The Superintendent recommends that the School Board review the information in this memo.
Approvals:
Recommended By:
Signed By:
Julia Burgos - Chief of School and Community Relations
Signed By:
Dr. Gregory C. Hutchings, Jr. - Superintendent