Mishawaka schools aim to 'tell story' to taxpayers

MISHAWAKA — After voters rejected a 2013 tax referendum to pay for building projects at Mishawaka schools, officials decided the district had failed to "tell its story" and explain to the public why it needed the money.

Four years and one successful referendum later, officials with School City of Mishawaka are determined not to make the same mistake again. They've embarked on a more aggressive push to market the district, including the recent hires of two local TV veterans to help communicate with the public.

As part of restructuring plans approved by the school board this year, the district hired Dean Huppert, a longtime sportscaster for the former WSJV-TV, and Meg Sauer, who spent 14 years as news director at WSBT-TV. Huppert officially began as the district's athletic director Saturday — he had been serving as a consultant — and Sauer also started Saturday, as the chief communications officer.

Superintendent Dean Speicher said both will work to better inform the public — an audience that includes both parents deciding where to send their kids for school and the taxpayers who have their own stake in Mishawaka public education. That's more vital than ever, he said, in a growing education market that includes cross-district enrollment, school choice vouchers and charter schools.

"Mishawaka over the past 30 years has not been perceived as a progressive, modern school system," Speicher said. "If we can't message who we are and separate our brand as being different from 'school system X or Y,' we don't have a future."

When officials this year re-defined the athletic director position, they shifted the job to oversee all grade levels, not just high school sports, and to focus more on "strategic" pursuits in fundraising and public relations instead of the traditional day-to-day management of sporting events.

Along with supervising athletic staff and developing sports programs, Huppert will act as more of a public face for Mishawaka sports, Speicher said, and will work to bring in business sponsors not only for sports, but also for art and academic programs.

Huppert said his 28 years in TV, much of which he spent highlighting positive stories about student athletes, would help him to build support in the community for Mishawaka schools.

"I have an understanding of media, an understanding of the way positive stories can impact communities," he said. "If the community knows more about what's happening in the schools, they're going to feel a part of it."

Huppert will be paid about $80,000 in his first one-year contract.

Sauer will fill a new position for Mishawaka schools, which has never employed a full-time public relations chief. The new position was approved by the school board earlier this year after a recommendation by a community group that was formed in response to the failed 2013 referendum.

"Wonderful work is being done in the classrooms and by administrators, and there was just not a person dedicated to getting that story out," Sauer said. "It's necessary in these times of communication where technology plays a big role and there are so many changes in the way people choose schools."

Sauer, who also will be on a year-by-year contract, will be paid about $70,000 for her first year. She was news director at WSBT-TV between 1996 and 2010 and more recently has served as a spokeswoman for the Salvation Army's Kroc Center in South Bend since 2012.

Both hires come as Mishawaka school officials already have begun an advertising campaign aimed at recruiting more families from both inside and outside the district's boundaries. The campaign includes radio spots along with video ads on Facebook.

Speicher said the school system's push for more enrollment already has seen results. Two years ago, the district had a net increase of about 120 students, and that increased to about 150 last year. For the 2017-18 school year, enrollment has climbed by at least 150, with more likely to join as the summer winds down.

And of the 127 out-of-district students enrolled for this year, 60 are incoming kindergartners, possibly showing that more families are choosing to start their children's academic career in Mishawaka, he said.

The district also is in the midst of $13 million in building improvements approved by voters last year. But Speicher has said the school system is sure to need more money before long, and that means it must keep making its case to taxpayers.

"If you're going to go back to the community and ask for more money, you better have done a good job of showing them how you've stewarded their money," he said. "The 70 percent that don't have children in the schools, they still pay their taxes, and every six months they have a big investment in the school system."

csheckler@sbtinfo.com

574-235-6480

@jcsheckler