Cherry-Creek

Challenge

In 2017, a top-rated Colorado school district faced a security issue and IT breach following parent claims that students were able to access inappropriate material through the district portal. dovetail solutions provided crisis communication support, assisting the school district with its media response and messaging and providing counsel related to web content and web access standards.

Strategy

Key objectives were identified by dovetail solutions and served as the messaging framework for the district’s response. Advising that the district host a town hall, dovetail solutions provided talking points to proactively inform parents, administration and other various constituencies of the situation and address concerns and questions.

Messaging objectives included the following:

1. Make the portal content available to parents.

  1. Establish the portal as a secure and credible source for student learning.
  2. Communicate honestly about the risks of Internet access for students.

Results

The town hall successfully established two-way communication with parents, providing clarity and transparency. Following dovetail solutions’ advisement to add an extra layer of security to the website portal, the network continued to serve as a main source for student learning.