Engaging the Unengaged During School Master Planning

In the realm of architecture and design, the most impactful projects aren’t just about aesthetics and functionality; they are about creating spaces that resonate with the communities they serve. And not surprisingly, the best way to understand the needs and preferences of community members is…by listening to them. Shocking, we know. But it’s true: Community engagement is a cornerstone of a successful master plan. Our decades of experience and hard-earned expertise can take us far, but a deep understanding of local needs and challenges is essential when planning the future of a community.

“When working with school districts, we really want to hear from well-rounded and truly representative population during the concept testing stage,” notes Jeff Parker, Director of Visioning at SHP. “It’s that feedback that guides us toward the best design solutions.”

But while certain stakeholders are always eager to offer their input—parents of students, teachers, school administrators—other community members are harder to engage. When feedback from a broadly representative group is essential to building a successful plan, how do we get everyone involved?

Unengaged—or Overwhelmed?

First, it’s important to understand what we mean by “unengaged.” At SHP, we use this term broadly to describe the members of the community that are hard to connect with for one reason or another—but Fil Anastasio, Director of Client Analytics and Services at SHP, points out that “unengaged” doesn’t necessarily mean “uninterested.”

“Calling them ‘unengaged’ doesn’t seem fair. Sometimes, they’re just hard to reach,” he says. “They’re being inundated with information from all directions, and their attention spans are being stretched thin.” Often, a district’s attempts to solicit feedback from the community simply aren’t breaking through the noise…or they aren’t optimized. Timing, for instance, is particularly important; asking community members for input around holidays or the first few weeks of summer will usually yield disappointing results. The same is true of the weeks around major elections, “when white noise is at its peak,” Fil says. “We have to optimize how and when we solicit input.”

But that can be a tall order for many districts that are operating on slim budgets and limited manpower. A school’s communication and PR department is often the first to deal with cutbacks when budgets are tight, as districts focus their resources on educating students and keeping facilities operational. “It’s hard enough for schools to maintain regular communication with parents, much less the broader community,” Fil says.

Most constituents, then, aren’t “unengaged”—they’re simply overwhelmed or unaware. However, some community members simply have no dog in the fight.

“There are some people who just have a weak connection to the district,” notes Jeff. “Maybe they don’t have kids, or their students graduated 20 years ago; their decisions about education are based more on curb appeal or tax impact. Even though this group has a limited connection with the district, they can make up a large percentage of the community. We have to engage them, too.”

Meeting Them Where They Are

The best way to connect with the “hard to reach” crowd? Simple: Meet them where they are.

“One of the districts we worked with made a very strong community engagement effort to gather feedback through emails, direct mail, and posts on the district’s Facebook page,” Jeff recalls. They had received a large volume of responses, but mostly from current parents and teachers— “so the results were a bit skewed,” he says. “We really needed to connect with that ‘unengaged’ group and gauge their priorities.”

That required a dedicated effort to reach them, not waiting for them to come to us. Our solution? Text messages.

“Not everyone goes on Facebook or checks their email, but most people will read a text message,” Fil says. “We sent 10,000 texts targeting the people we were missing in those zip codes, asking them to watch a short video and take a survey. We actually had a pretty impressive response rate.”

SHP has also experimented with social media to get in front of hard-to-reach demographics. Community engagement methods like targeted Facebook ads, for instance, have been useful for gathering input from some groups, “but we also recognize that as communities start skewing younger, we need to invest in other methods to reach them,” says Fil. “Younger generations aren’t on Facebook anymore, so platforms like Snapchat, TikTok, and Reddit are on our radar as ways to connect with these groups and get their input in a more organic way.”

And once we get in front of the “unengaged” part of the community, we need to collect data that is balanced and useful. Qualitative data gathered from open-ended questions is certainly valuable, “but getting quantitative data allows us to be measurable and do some deeper analysis,” says Jeff. Hard numbers can be compared to historical data and results from other districts, revealing important trends and helping steering committees make more informed decisions about the future of their schools.

Data-Driven Conversations

Not surprisingly, soliciting feedback from a broader population will usually lead to actionable insights. After sending out those 10,000 text messages, for instance, “we ended up with important data that helped guide our conversation with the district,” says Jeff.

The feedback that the district had already received, mostly from teachers, administrators, and parents of current students, “skewed heavily towards matters that were best for students—things like safety, equity across buildings, and providing high-quality education,” said Fil. After receiving input from the broader community, though, “it was clear they supported the same things!” said Fil. “But they also wanted to prioritize fiscal responsibility—an absolutely valid concern.”

Results like these are essential for the master planning process, both for planning purposes and for getting buy-in from key stakeholders. Without support from the community, Jeff says, even the best-laid plans will fail.

“We know that teachers and parents are the cheerleaders. They’re enthusiastic about building the best possible schools for their students,” he says. “But understanding what the rest of the community is concerned about keeps us focused. We can show the results to the community advisory team and say, ‘This is how your neighbors are feeling, these are their concerns, and we need to consider their priorities if we want their support.’ Having that information narrows down what solutions are the most viable and likely to succeed.” “Often, this feedback dials back the enthusiasm and tempers the ongoing conversation, but that’s not a bad thing,” he adds. “When you temper something, you make it stronger.”

Community Input, Stronger Designs

By prioritizing community engagement, we can design spaces that are not only beautiful and functional but also deeply connected to the communities they serve—leading to improved project outcomes and long-term satisfaction.

“We always say that a successful master plan has to meet three criteria,” Fil finishes. “It must be great for education, it must be financially responsible, and it must be community supported. Without those three things, then it’s destined to fail. Prioritizing engagement early in the process lets us pull back the curtain on how the community really feels and brings us to stronger solutions.”