The principal's role in community relations is sometimes overlooked by many educational stakeholders until there is something negative that happens. The reality is that principals play a huge role in shaping the perception of the school in the greater community whether they do so intentionally or not. School's have been under a higher than usual amount of scrutiny throughout the 2020-2021 school year because of the various school policies related to COVID-19. From a community relations perspective, any decision made by schools about in-person, hybrid, or distance learning models was going to make some people happy and some people angry. How skillfully principals had established positive community relations before the pandemic made a huge difference in the community response to tough decisions.
The Community Relations competency is an area that I view as a strength for myself. As co-president of the teacher's union I have had the opportunity to build positive community relations through union community outreach for several years, worked with the school principals and superintendent to shape the plan and message for our district's COVID response in the summer of 2020, and met with school board members to help maintain community perspective on school issues. For my practicum I created and continue to manage the Facebook and Twitter pages for the Fergus Falls ALC. I have also used Wakelet to share student work with parents.