MPS Communication Mini Guide

MPS Communications Guide for Families

Superintendent’s Message

Hello Parents and Caregivers,

The Middleborough Public Schools is proud to share this Communications Mini Guide with all of you. We live in an age of instant communication with up-to-the-minute information available at our fingertips. Our students are no exception to this reality. Recognizing your need for information and our desire to communicate with you about all of the goings-on at the Middleborough Public Schools, we hope this guide will provide clarity of our communication practices.

Communication, especially in today’s world, can signal alarm and fear. We seek to challenge that status quo with this guide and our perspective on transparency. We believe that our schools are a safe place where amazing things happen every single day. While it is natural to worry about our children while they are away from us, we ask that you approach communication with a degree of trust that we do prioritize the safety of our students, faculty, and staff at all times and will always make decisions in the best interests of children.

Please reach out to ask us questions about this guide and our process more generally. We are happy to answer any questions you may have.

Sincerely,

Carolyn Lyons

Methods of Communication

How do we communicate?

Newsletters
Website
Email
Telephone/All Call
Letters
Tuesday Folders @ Elementary
District & School Calendars
Social Media

Newsletters

What happened to the good old fashioned letter?

MPS communicates through our weekly digital newsletters.

All school administrators use a digital newsletter platform to communicate with parents, families, and/or faculty
You can reach a larger number of viewers faster than posting just to social media and families do not have to wait for items to arrive in the mail
Allows the ability to share more than just text information

Weekly newsletters will often announcements that may be happening in the coming weeks to allow families to properly plan

Can be shared with others to be used throughout the school system
Teachers can use the site to create event flyers, newsletters for students or parents, and other documents
This platform allows our message to be translated into any language and makes our information accessible to all families

Adaptive Communiation

Our approach to communication is always evolving and attempts to meet the needs of our students and families.
District Website

We recently updated the website to make it more user-friendly to families. We recognized that families were not successful in finding the information they were seeking. The new website was designed to bring desired information to the homepage and provide a faster, more efficient experience. Some features on the homepage include:

Announcements
Event Promotion
Lunch Options
Family Quick Links
District Calendar
Relevant Newsletters

Social media is used for promoting events and activities that are happening within the Middleborough Public Schools. We will also use social media to celebrate students and staff.
MPS informs the community through multiple social media platforms

Categories of Communication

Who will you hear from and when will these groups communicate with you?

We will communicate through Classtag for all School Related Communications. We are aware that communication has come from a variety of platforms which can be confusing. Moving forward, all communications from the school will come from ClassTag and/or SMORE. The topic will depend on where the communication initiates.

District wide announcements will come from Sean Siciliano, Communications Director or Carolyn Lyons, Superintendent of Schools. You will also get messages from our Curriculum Department, Student Services, and Special Education Department.
Building communication will come from the level building administration will communicate with families. Teachers regularly communicate with families using Classtag, agenda books, or email.

Social media is used for promoting events and activities that are happening within the Middleborough Public Schools. We will also use social media to celebrate students and staff.

When do you send messages

We will communicate as soon as we have accurate information that we can share with you about immediate incidents.
Notifications about events and weekly newsletters will be sent out after school hours. We want parents to know that if we are reaching out to families during the day it is an urgent matter and should be read. Items that are communicated after the school day are also important, but not urgent.

What type of information will we share

We are communicating as it pertains to school safety and school related events. Please know that during the school day events may occur that disrupt the students day. This includes medical and all other unexpected events.
MPS has made a point to communicate with families about things that affect the students' school day or things that they may have seen at school so that families have the ability to have a conversation with their students. We will also share information about events and weekly newsletters from our building principals. This means that there will be more communication from the building as it relates to events that may have occurred during the school day.

School Closings and Delays

School closing and delays will be communicated with families as soon as the call is made. Our goal is to make the decision to open, close, or delay by 5:00 a.m. or earlier if possible. We will communicate on all platforms including, ClassTag, Robo Call, Social Media, and News Station Closings Pages. More information on Inclement weather announcements

Exciting News and Accomplishments of Students and Staff

We know that great things are happening within our district every day and we want to make sure the community knows about the many accomplishments of our school community. These communications will mostly be communicated through social media, local media, school committee meetings and our district website.

Community based information

These announcements may include announcements about town events, large construction that may affect the school day, or community events that would be appropriate for our school community to attend.

Emergency Situations

How you define emergency changes whether you are a parent, student, family member, or school personnel. There are categories of information that will not be shared if they are confidential in nature or relate to personnel matters.

Emergency situations are identified as such when multiple factors exist like:

Potential safety concern for students or staff
Inclement weather
Disruption of the school day that interrupts a large amount of students
Emergency personnel responding to the school
And anything else that the district deems an emergency

The use of a Stay Put status:

A stay put is not always a safety emergency for the entire building. We use a stay put status to eliminate students traveling around the building in the event that medical personnel need to be brought into the building to assist a member of the MPS community.

In these situations, you will be receive communication from us

If it is an immediate emergency we will reach out ASAP
If it is something that is isolated but does not “affect” many students that message will go out after dismissal.

Cross Building Communication

When the district feels that the larger school communities should be made aware of something we will share that with the MPS Community. This would be in the case of an incident that affects multiple schools or poses a potential danger to students or staff from multiple buildings.

School Resource Officers

Members of the Middleborough Police Department work in our building every day. Their police work does not stop because they are in our schools. It is not unusual for the SROs to investigate matters that involve students. This does not mean that there is a safety issue at school or that the investigated event occured in school. It is important that you know that not all police matters that are investigated withing the building are school safety related.

If you have a concern about MPD business including any information contained in police logs, please contact the Middleborough Police Department directly.

Facebook Parent Groups

Facebook is not a platform that families should visit to seek accurate information about our school district. There are no parent groups or private pages that are supported or endorsed by the Middleborough Public Schools. Parents and families are strongly cautioned against relying on information obtained through this platform.