Essay #1 When embarking on a school and community relations program, the district needs to first adopt a community relations policy. A policy is the basis for the superintendent and their staff to work out the details of the program for the board’s approval. Local school boards are largely responsible for devising the policy. The policy should be short and simple. It should state what should be done and reasons for doing so. Making it clear and simple reduces the chances of misunderstanding, puts a restraint against impulsive action, and also serves as a guide in decision making. Every school district’s strategic plan of school and community relations must contain internal and external communication plans. The board sets a positive tone for the program when it consults with interested citizens and representatives of community groups on problems facing the schools. Interested citizens have much to contribute to the solution of those problems. Consulting these people makes them partners in the job of education and helps develop a basic policy for encouraging and expanding constructive relationships between the school and the community. The governing board should understand and model its policy-setting responsibilities on actions that are in the best interests of students and their learning. In a centralized plan, the school administrators most responsible for school community relations are the school superintendent and central office administrators. In a decentralized plan, the building principals are the most responsible for relations and a coordinated plan utilizes central office administrators along with school principals. Specialists are largely human resource faculty and staff that interact with the community publics through their specific responsibilities. One group that often gets overlooked but has various community publics is the support