With 34,000 students, the Richardson Independent School District doesn’t have the homey “everybody knows everybody” feel of some private institutions.
But RISD does offer some of the academic perks found in private schools and markets those perks to district residents.
For example, the district offers the advanced placement programs. They allow students to take courses that can lead to college credits if they pass the advanced placement test given at the end of each school year. The district also has pre-advanced placement courses in junior high for students who want a more rigorous course of study.
Besides reading, writing and arithmetic, RISD offers programs such as the Living Materials Center at Richardson High School where students participate in advanced science experiments and an Enterprise City at Canyon Creek Elementary School, where elementary students through seventh-graders run the “city.”
The district is telling residents about such programs through mediums that include the Internet, cable television and staff-generated publications.
“We have the attitude that the schools belong to the public, and we want to be open and let people know what’s going on,” says Susan Dacus Wilson, assistant to the superintendent for communication and community outreach.
The RISD View is distributed to 54,000 households in the district, including households where the children may be attending private school, Wilson says.
“It will have anything from national merit winners to test scores to the financial cost per student to innovative programs,” she explains. “We tell them all about some of the wonderful honors that our kids win.”
The district also has assembled a group of 350 key communicators that it calls together for meetings several times a year. The members are people who are viewed as leaders in the community and typically are named to the group by a board member, principal or someone in the district who recommends them.
Sometimes RISD provides speakers. This year, for example, it is bringing in speakers to discuss what schools will be like 10 years from now, Wilson says.
At other times, the district calls on the key communicators to give them feedback on things such as proposed bond projects. The district also forms business partnerships, where businesses volunteer time in the schools, serve as mentors and sponsor field trips. Such ties to the community help the district communicate its programs, Wilson says.
The district also believes in using surveys to keep on top of what teachers and parents are thinking. Each year, parents and staff at every RISD school are asked to fill out a survey on how the school performed.
“We want parents and taxpayers to know what we are doing,” she said. “We are always interested in what they have to say.”
