Now that your governing board has approved the Local Control and Accountability Plan, the next step is to revisit the board’s role as key communicators on LCAP decisions and strategies. This is a step that county offices of education can also take once they have adopted their LCAP, which addresses the needs of students who are enrolled in COE alternative schools.

The new CSBA governance brief “Six Essential School Board roles in LCAP Implementation and Development” (see more about the resource on page 8), identifies components to the board’s role as key communicators. Asking and discussing the following questions can help your board develop cohesive communication strategies that align with the role of key communicators.

• How do strategies in our LCAP support improved student outcomes?
• What are the LCAP strategies that support the needs of our historically underserved student populations?
• What are our LCAP successes? What are the lessons learned from past LCAPs that are incorporated into the new plan?
• Will the board make a commitment to stay on point with the agreed-upon messages?

• What are key messages that are important to share?
• Why are these points important to our community stakeholders?
• Are our communication tools transparent, clear, positive and memorable?
• Do we have a range of communication tools that will help us reach our many and diverse stakeholders?

• How, and where, will we make information on the LCAP available?
• How are we sharing this information with staff? What roles are staff asked to take in the sharing of key messages?
• What is our commitment to translating information, working with community liaisons and utilizing translation services to meet the diverse language needs of our community?
• How will we reach out to local, state and federal elected officials and agencies?

Developing thoughtful and clear communication strategies will help boards to effectively serve as key communicators and to successfully reach out to community stakeholders regarding the LCAP. For additional information, reference the CSBA governance brief “Six Essential School Board roles in LCAP Implementation and Development” available at www.csba.org under the Governance and Policy Resources tab.