School board pass marketing agreement to improve The Bridge

A proposed agreement with Liebel Marketing Group to create more content for The Bridge, the communication application included on the Newton Community School District’s website that provides updates to parents and the general public, garnered further discussion amongst school board members Monday night.

Originally included on the consent agenda — the items of which are often approved as one piece or as a lump sum — the agreement itself raised enough concerns to prompt school board member Donna Cook to request the agreement be extracted from group and inspected more thoroughly, particularly the price.

According to the engagement letter from Liebl Marketing Group, the agreement, which was eventually approved in a 5-2 vote from board members, would cost the school district $1,200 per month for “copywriting, content curation and technical oversight and deployment of The Bridge: 2019 Communication Initiative.”

The school district had previously been paying the Liebl Marketing Group $125 per month to only host the school's website, www.NewtonCSD.org.

As per the agreement, the school district will also schedule bi-weekly, on-site meetings with Liebel Marketing Group and Bearded Ginger Designs “to oversee development of communication and content curation.” Supporting content for the site will be curated by the marketing team, as will the deployment of The Bridge updates “via email, website and applicable social media channels.”

The Des Moines-based advertising agency will also develop The Bridge landing page “to host and communicate with staff and community the latest information and resources.” The agency will also establish the “Note From Bob” — a regular message from NCSD Superintendent Bob Callaghan — to lead off each edition or update.

NCSD Director of Business of Services Tim Bloom said, “This essentially will help us get a newsletter out every month. They met with Bob (Callaghan) and (NCSD Director of Human Resources) Laura (Selover) and help craft the first message that you saw this month.”

Bloom referred to the “A New School Year, A New Way To Keep Connected” update released Aug. 21, two days before students returned to their classrooms. Included was a written message from Callaghan, a 2019-20 welcome back video, a list of all the new teachers, upcoming events and links to download the newest student handbook or helped with the campuses’ school supplies list.

“Our intention is to have this every month, at least something to roll out,” Bloom added. “(Or) something similar to that to provide communication because the public should get more of that information. And that’s one of our goals to communicate more clearly to people and the general public.”

The agreement with Liebl Marketing Group is effective this month and includes a 60-day auto renewal. Ann Leonard, vice-president of the school board, confirmed with Bloom the board has the opportunity every two months to not renew the contract.

“Because I’d like to think that we’d do some type of followup to make sure that a newsletter is effective,” Leonard said.

Robyn Friedman, president of the school board, said she has concerns with the auto renewal, which were also shared by Cook. Bloom said the agreement can be paid for using Physical Plant and Equipment Levy (PPEL) and Secure an Advanced Vision for Education (SAVE) funds. In the future, Bloom said the hope would be to allot money from the general fund to cover costs.

“But we’re not to that point yet,” Bloom said. “We’re kind of testing this out to see how this is going to go.”

Friedman and Cook, both of the opposing voices in final vote, agreed the engagement letter does not accurately reflect the entire extent of services included in the agreement. Friedman said a marketing workshop may be in order for the school board to address specifically.

However, school board member Cody Muhs said it is too much to have a work session dedicated to The Bridge and marketing efforts. Fellow school board member Josh Cantu said he would like district staff for update the board on the results or impact of the school’s marketing efforts through Liebel Marketing Group.

Contact Christopher Braunschweig at 641-792-3121 ext. 6560 or cbraunschweig@newtondailynews.com