In the fall of 2013 the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District (KPBSD) started what is called a Key Communicator program.

“It started by asking all our school principals for names of a few parents in their community that are involved with and care about our schools,” explained Pegge Erkeneff, KPBSD spokesperson at this year’s Key Communicator Summit.

“It’s a four hour, fast-paced time of learning and conversation with more than fifty people who care about KPBSD schools, and a few who connected remotely via Skype for Business, ignited the new school year. On September 19, 2017, school board members, key communicators, site council representatives, the district leadership team, some principals, candidates for public office, and community partners gathered. The purpose: collaborate with key people about focus areas in KPBSD, gain insight from multiple perspectives, and grow advocates for KPBSD public education,” she explained.

“After a State of the KPBSD from Superintendent Sean Dusek, groups of twelve participants moved through five separate twenty minute presentations: Personalized Learning (#PL) in a Nutshell; Everyday Challenges in federal program offerings and special education; Distance Delivery Education; School District Finances; and Legislative &Borough Advocacy. Discussion and reflection followed. This was the third Key Communicator day; additional regional evenings will take place throughout the coming school year,” said Erkeneff.

In an interview with the Dispatch, Dusek shared his hopes for the outcome of the summit.

“First and foremost we want to re-establish the connections we have made in the past with people who want to be engaged and involved and have their questions answered about our district. Once a year we bring people together to go over pertinent topics such as our personalized learning project that we are working on right now across the district. Finance is always a topic of public concern and we talk about the role of a Key Communicator to gather questions, making suggestions and helping us all improve in our communication across the community. There are always areas where we can do better and listening to the public and providing accurate information and answers is important. If the questions are difficult, that’s okay we’re willing to admit that we have areas to improve upon and here’s what we are doing to make it better. We are responsible to our students to help them get prepared for their future. In this day and age people are extremely busy. It seems to be part of the information age that we are in, we are constantly being bombarded with information and today is an opportunity to take a little bit of time to take a look at the information that is out there and actually go through it so that you understand it. What is very inspiring about today is that this is a group of committed people to make our communities better. These are people who want to take the time to know what is happening in the district so if they do hear something out there they feel informed enough to respond,” said Dusek.

To learn more about becoming a Key Communicator, visit http://bit.ly/KeyCommunicatorsKPBSD, or contact Pegge Erkeneff, communications liaison, 714.8888 or Pegge@KPBSD.org.