The Northwest Local School District hadn’t passed a levy for new operating money since 1992. They were again on the ballot on May 4, 2010. If the levy failed, the school district would be placed in fiscal emergency. The communications challenge was trying to overcome the community’s deeply embedded distrust of the district and a long-standing habit of voting NO.

Superintendent Bill Stetler recognized that effectively communicating with the community would begin to build confidence. However, the district needed to determine the underlying causes of the community’s negative feelings toward the district.

With board approval, he hired The Impact Group to conduct a phone survey of Northwest Local School District residents to gauge their feelings toward the district and to uncover the reasons behind them. The survey was conducted in May of 2009.

Through the use of the survey, The Impact Group was able to provide the district with a Pattern Interrupt. This meant communicating levy information to the district’s residents a year before the issue was on the ballot. In previous years, the district waited until the levy was already on the ballot before communicating information to residents, leaving little time to effectively get the message across.

He was also able to find ways to better communicate with the community. Through the survey, he learned the community would like to see a dedicated communications effort regarding finances. Also, the community wanted to see the formulation of an Independent Financial Oversight Committee run by qualified Northwest resident volunteers. With the help of The Impact Group, both were launched before the new school year began.

With the success of the survey, the district then hired The Impact Group to develop ongoing messaging and a communications plan. The communications outreach theme became Your Plan. Your Vote. The Impact Group used its unique communications methodology to project manage the outreach efforts for the school district.

With the advice of the Independent Financial Oversight Committee, the district placed a 1 percent earned income tax on the May 4 ballot. Through a coordinated, open and honest dialogue with the community, the earned income tax passed on election night 60%/40%.

“Without the results of the survey, we wouldn’t have known how residents wanted to be communicated with,” said Stetler. “It really set the foundation for our entire campaign plan. We were able to pass a new-money issue for the first time in 18 years. The Impact Group’s knowledge of surveys and polling, and its ability to turn that data into an effective communications plan, played a great part in our success.”