At a Board of Education meeting earlier this month, Pelham Union Free School District Director of Communication Alex Wolff shared updates on the district’s continued progress advancing the strategic priorities from its communications audit. He also noted that the district is re-administering a community survey to evaluate how stakeholder perceptions and communication preferences have evolved since the audit was conducted two and a half years ago. Photo credit: Pelham Union Free School District Youtube

When Pelham Union Free School District emerged from the pandemic, Director of Communication Alex Wolff could feel a fundamental shift in how families and staff expected to receive information.

Parents had grown accustomed to daily visibility into classrooms through virtual and hybrid learning. Digital tools had multiplied. Communication preferences were changing faster than the district could keep up.

“I thought we were doing a lot of really good things from a communication standpoint,” Wolff said, “but we didn't really have a lot of good data to assess whether they were actually effective.” That mindset is what prompted Wolff to pursue something the district had never done before: a comprehensive, system-wide communications audit.

What followed was a transformation that reshaped not just tools and tactics, but also strategy, trust and the role of the communicator itself.

Why Pelham Chose to Take a Closer Look

Wolff and district leadership had already been talking about how communication had shifted in the years following the pandemic. As those conversations continued, it became clear that the school system needed a more objective, data-driven picture of how well its communication systems were working and where they could be strengthened.

Across the community, people were expressing a wide range of opinions about communication. Some feedback was constructive, some was conflicting and some rose to the surface simply because it was louder than the rest. Like many school systems, Pelham occasionally encountered moments when communication felt harder than it should have, and concerns about a situation often became concerns about communication itself.

“Oftentimes when people don't like a decision that was made or how something was handled, the first place they look at is communications,” Wolff said. “Sometimes that’s accurate, and sometimes it’s not. We needed a way to understand what was really going on, beyond the loudest voices.”

Wolff wanted clarity around key questions:

• Which concerns reflected true patterns, and which were outliers?
• Where were there gaps in tools, processes or expectations?
• What did families and staff genuinely need and value?
• And how could Pelham strengthen consistency, trust and effectiveness systemwide?

Those questions led Wolff to propose undertaking a comprehensive communications audit, a holistic review that examines messaging, tools, workflows, stakeholder perceptions and the overall communication environment.

When presenting the idea to district leadership, he was upfront about the scope of the work. “Listen, this is a bit ambitious,” Wolff told them. “And it’s going to cost some money. But if we really want to do this the right way, a communications audit can give us the objective data and direction we’re looking for.”

They appreciated the idea of taking a full top-to-bottom look. “It wasn’t just about reviewing a newsletter or a superintendent’s message,” Wolff said. It was about examining the entire communication ecosystem and understanding how everything from building-level communications to central office outreach worked together. The district wanted more than a list of likes and dislikes; they wanted evidence-based guidance rooted in proven practices.

For Wolff, who entered school PR from journalism, the audit offered something especially valuable: a research-based foundation for decision-making.

“When you’re in the middle of something challenging, there’s no textbook,” he said. “Having data that shows what’s working and what’s not helps you make the case for your approach or for trying something different.”

Wolff acknowledged that taking on an audit can feel vulnerable, especially as a one-person communications office. But understanding the scope of the process helped. “The audit looks at the entire district," he said. "It looks at how principals are communicating, how administrators are reaching out, how teachers are connecting with families and what internal protocols look like,” he said. “That perspective made the process feel far less personal.”

Inside the Audit Process: A 360° View of a District’s Communication Health

Following a Request For Proposal process that evaluated several approaches, Pelham ultimately selected NSPRA to conduct the audit.

Pelham’s audit followed many best practices used across the field:

• Comprehensive Surveys: Families, staff and community members completed surveys with calculated confidence intervals, ensuring the district had representative data, not just the loudest voices.
• In-Person Focus Groups: Parents, staff, students and multilingual families shared candid perspectives that added invaluable nuance to the survey findings.
• Artifact Review: Newsletters, crisis messages, website content, internal memos, social media posts and common forms of communication were analyzed for consistency, clarity and effectiveness.
• Interviews and Leadership Conversations: Auditors met with district and school leaders to understand processes, roles and expectations around communication including what exists formally and what exists in practice.

Together, these elements created a clear picture of how communication moved through the system and where misalignment, overload or gaps existed, detailed in a comprehensive written report.

Major Shifts Inspired by the Audit

The audit outlined eight significant strategic priorities. Several have already reshaped the district’s communication program in meaningful ways.

1. Moving from “busy” to “strategic”

One of the most immediate outcomes was the development of a strategic communications plan. With support from the auditor, Pelham created:

• Clear communication goals
• Defined key messages
• Priority audiences
• Structures for evaluating progress

“It helped move us from instinct to insight,” Wolff said. “We stopped doing things because they seemed like good ideas and instead focused on what aligned with data.”

2. Strengthening crisis communication workflows 

The audit reinforced the need for a more strategic approach to crisis communication. Pelham had begun this work prior to the audit, but the findings clarified what still needed attention and helped the district focus its efforts.

A major priority was formalizing roles and responsibilities so everyone understood their part during a crisis. “The main thing was formalizing who’s doing what and building redundancy,” Wolff said. 

The district also strengthened information flow between buildings and the central office.“If my job is to support a school or building during a crisis and I don’t know what’s happening, that’s going to be really, really hard,” Wolff said, something the audit helped underscore.

3. Prioritizing internal audiences

Internal communication emerged as a growth area, a challenge common across districts nationwide. Audit findings helped Pelham adopt a “staff first when possible” approach, improving two-way communication by:

• Closing feedback loops more consistently
• Adding regular administrator check-ins
• Launching an employee newsletter
• Proactively sharing context behind decisions

“Staff are our ambassadors,” Wolff said. “They can’t build trust with families if they feel out of the loop.”

4. Unifying communication tools and reducing noise

Before the audit, Pelham’s schools used different platforms for newsletters and messaging. Some were visually engaging, while others were extremely limited. Families received inconsistent formats and, at times, duplicative messages.

“I knew this was an issue,” Wolff said, “but I didn’t have the data to necessarily recommend a change.”

Audit data helped Pelham make the case for a unified platform that integrates with the student information system and allows families to control how they receive notifications.

“We now have consistency and can see whether we were actually reaching all families.”

5. Building communication capacity across the district

The audit revealed the importance of strengthening communication practices beyond the central office and ensuring leaders throughout the district share responsibility for clear, consistent messages. The insights led Pelham to strengthen communication capacity through:

• Providing administrator training on communication basics and crisis communication.
• Clarifying roles and expectations, particularly around decision-making and who communicates what.
• Creating stronger protocols and more frequent check-ins with principals and senior administrators.
• Adding temporary staffing support during high-stakes work, such as contracting BOCES communications help during the district’s large bond campaign.

These changes reinforced communication as a districtwide responsibility and helped shift the communications role from a production-focused function to a strategic partner with a seat at the table during early decision-making.

Ripple Effects: Elevating the Communicator’s Seat at the Table

One of the most profound outcomes was a shift in how communications was viewed by district leadership.

As Pelham implemented the audit recommendations, it became clear that communication considerations needed to be part of decision-making from the beginning, not just at the end as a final “make it look good” step.

Wolff was invited to join the district’s senior cabinet.

“You can’t be three steps into a major decision and then hand it to communications,” he said. “Being in the room early allows us to anticipate concerns, align messaging and support leaders strategically.”

This shift ensured that communication was no longer reactive, but integrated into the district’s systems and planning.

Why Audits Matter and What Districts Can Learn

Pelham’s experience reflects what many districts discover when they conduct a communications audit:

• You gain clarity about what’s working and what’s not.
• It becomes easier to make the case for change, because decisions are grounded in data, not personal preference.
• You strengthen trust by aligning communication practices with stakeholder needs.
• You elevate the value of the communication role, positioning it as a strategic function essential to district success.

Two and a half years later, Pelham is re-administering the SCOPE survey to stakeholders to understand how perceptions and preferences have shifted. “Survey findings and evaluations are a snapshot in time,” Wolff said. “The communication landscape keeps changing, and if you’re not continually asking your community what’s working and what’s not, you risk missing the mark and eroding trust.”

And for Wolff, making sure communication meets the community’s needs is part of caring for the whole system.

“We’re a nearly $100 million public organization,” said Wolff. “Every other part of the system gets evaluated: curriculum, operations, finance. Why wouldn’t we evaluate communication? It’s the foundation for trust in everything we do.”