Schools hire firms to help with public relations

The Whitefish School District is hiring separate public relations and marketing firms to help establish a more defined brand and improve communications with the community.

The school board June 14 OK’d contracts with Brian Schott at Buckshot Enterprises for public relations work, and with Wheelie Creative for marketing and brand strategy. Both are Whitefish-based firms.

“In general, since I’ve been on the board, we’ve heard we could be more effective in communications,” said school board chairman Shawn Watts. “We know that’s true.”

“We’ve discussed this almost constantly. We’ve taken a few internal steps in doing it ourselves. But the problem is there’s no person on staff to do this. That’s why we’re getting outside help.”

Wheelie Creative initially will perform a brand audit and development plan that will look at tightening up the district’s logos, overall look and online presence.

The public relations work will deal with how the district is telling its story to the community.

“Typically, school’s haven’t needed to think about marketing and public relations — but that’s changing,” Watts said. “Students have more choices these days about where they go to school. We want to make sure we’re telling a story that makes our various constituents aware of [what we’re doing well.]”

The contract for Wheelie Creative is $10,000. The Buckshot contract is not yet finalized, but according to district business director Danelle Reisch, it likely will be less than $10,000.