1 00:00:00,47 --> 00:00:01,59 You're watching a segment of 2 00:00:01,60 --> 00:00:06,97 a splash grader was Lindsay olds newsmagazine show and welcome back we are joined 3 00:00:06,98 --> 00:00:11,02 by Dan Durkin West Bloomfield school district public relations and marketing 4 00:00:11,03 --> 00:00:15,02 coordinator and Dan thank you so much for being with us thank you so much for 5 00:00:15,03 --> 00:00:18,47 having me happy to be here and it's nice to have you here and with little field 6 00:00:18,67 --> 00:00:21,79 tell me where you came from Initially most recently came from 7 00:00:21,80 --> 00:00:25,18 a wild extols spent six years out over there in 8 00:00:25,19 --> 00:00:29,07 a marketing community relations kind of aspect for their school district I learned 9 00:00:29,08 --> 00:00:31,70 a great deal two years prior to that I was actually in Berkeley schools 10 00:00:31,71 --> 00:00:34,86 a little bit smaller of a district doing a very similar thing for them to 11 00:00:34,92 --> 00:00:36,05 a lot of their video work 12 00:00:36,72 --> 00:00:40,11 a lot of their digital marketing and things of that nature OK so how long have you 13 00:00:40,12 --> 00:00:44,37 been in what Today marks six weeks all right I'll try and hopefully soon all know 14 00:00:44,38 --> 00:00:48,72 where they keep all the. Copiers and all those different kinds of things will get 15 00:00:48,73 --> 00:00:53,08 there eventually All right so why the move tell me well it was just kind of the 16 00:00:53,09 --> 00:00:55,100 opportunity I was looking for and kind of you know this opportunity came up at the 17 00:00:56,01 --> 00:01:00,04 right time I knew I'd spent then you never want to say you've come too far you've 18 00:01:00,38 --> 00:01:03,69 accomplished everything you want to accomplish but I knew I was ready for the next 19 00:01:03,70 --> 00:01:05,03 opportunity to maybe take on 20 00:01:05,04 --> 00:01:09,36 a school an entire school districts communications strategy and department at that 21 00:01:09,37 --> 00:01:13,63 point so I started looking around and then when this opportunity came up just being 22 00:01:13,64 --> 00:01:17,65 so close involved for the past six years I thought it was a no brainer and having 23 00:01:17,66 --> 00:01:21,31 a previous relationship with Pam's Ajak already knowing all the great things she 24 00:01:21,32 --> 00:01:24,06 was doing I thought you know everything I learned about West Bloomfield just in 25 00:01:24,07 --> 00:01:29,11 that relationship you know was an opportunity I didn't want to pass up so West 26 00:01:29,12 --> 00:01:33,11 Bloomfield was like a little bit similar but one filled a lot smaller 27 00:01:33,15 --> 00:01:37,60 a lot smaller and you said you like that yeah it's very much reminds me of kind of 28 00:01:37,61 --> 00:01:41,78 the community I grew up in up in the Davidson area up in Flint and just there's 29 00:01:41,79 --> 00:01:44,93 a strong sense of community here and it's really need to kind of see everyone 30 00:01:44,94 --> 00:01:48,88 pushing towards the same goal you know kiddos I go to Dorothea once end up going to 31 00:01:48,89 --> 00:01:51,23 all of the end up going to the high school and it's just a kind of 32 00:01:51,24 --> 00:01:53,07 a combined experience that you have in 33 00:01:53,08 --> 00:01:57,13 a small district along with that small town feel all while being in 34 00:01:57,14 --> 00:01:59,11 a major suburban area to at the same time has 35 00:01:59,12 --> 00:02:03,67 a really unique kind of combination of things and have tributes that really make us 36 00:02:03,78 --> 00:02:06,62 feel special and I'm really happy to be here OK So here's the million dollar 37 00:02:06,63 --> 00:02:12,59 question. What are you going to do well you know one of the things with following 38 00:02:12,63 --> 00:02:15,58 an institution like Pam say Jack you want to you want to definitely make sure 39 00:02:15,59 --> 00:02:18,81 you're at least doing the things that everyone expects of this department already 40 00:02:19,53 --> 00:02:22,76 in the six weeks that's been my goal every day coming in is to at least do it and 41 00:02:22,77 --> 00:02:27,16 do it the way Pam is doing it at least as good all while trying to find my own way 42 00:02:27,17 --> 00:02:31,93 to put my own stamp on things maybe it's just my age maybe it's just my background 43 00:02:31,94 --> 00:02:35,99 I really want to focus more into maybe some digital marketing certainly using 44 00:02:36,00 --> 00:02:40,11 social media more really hope that people in the community have seen that that 45 00:02:40,12 --> 00:02:43,20 change already in these first six weeks utilizing that as 46 00:02:43,21 --> 00:02:46,34 a tool to communicate not only to our parents but we are really our community all 47 00:02:46,35 --> 00:02:48,46 the great things that are going on it's such 48 00:02:48,47 --> 00:02:50,25 a supportive community especially with the bond 49 00:02:50,26 --> 00:02:53,64 a few years ago I want people to know what their bond dollars what their tax 50 00:02:53,65 --> 00:02:56,60 dollars are being used for in the classrooms and all the great learning taking 51 00:02:56,61 --> 00:03:01,92 place and it's really hard to be. In more than one place that's the name time and 52 00:03:01,93 --> 00:03:05,27 social media really allowed absent you that absolutely and that's the great thing 53 00:03:05,28 --> 00:03:09,32 is that if you know there's an event going on dads and donuts one morning at 54 00:03:09,33 --> 00:03:12,24 Dorothy or something like that principal can be taking pictures sharing that 55 00:03:12,25 --> 00:03:15,88 information with me sharing it with his community then I can come back share with 56 00:03:15,89 --> 00:03:19,45 our community while I've been jumping out to different other places different 57 00:03:19,46 --> 00:03:23,90 locations and things going on like that so it's really just allows us. You know in 58 00:03:23,91 --> 00:03:27,53 my department in our district to really showcase everything that's really going on 59 00:03:27,54 --> 00:03:32,02 through the power of social media so website changes coming going staying the same 60 00:03:32,03 --> 00:03:35,99 well I've not heard anything is that need some work both from people within our 61 00:03:35,100 --> 00:03:39,40 district you know so the back end users that are adding the content and also from 62 00:03:39,41 --> 00:03:40,57 the parents being 63 00:03:40,58 --> 00:03:44,31 a new parent myself I know you know those minutes that time you're spending on 64 00:03:44,32 --> 00:03:47,90 websites is precious If you're trying to find the school lunch menus you need to 65 00:03:47,91 --> 00:03:49,71 find quickly because you need to go on you need to run 66 00:03:49,72 --> 00:03:53,32 a soccer practice or something like that so trying to reevaluate kind of maybe our 67 00:03:53,33 --> 00:03:57,28 layouts maybe our overall design just trying to figure you know figure out how we 68 00:03:57,29 --> 00:04:01,28 can more efficiently serve not only our students our staff but our parents at home 69 00:04:01,83 --> 00:04:08,04 OK I wanted to turn it to not the Dark Side by any means but if something you know 70 00:04:08,05 --> 00:04:12,64 there's fire alarms there's lockdown drills there's there's stuff that happens and 71 00:04:12,65 --> 00:04:17,02 we all know that in this day and age so if something should God forbid happen in 72 00:04:17,03 --> 00:04:21,24 the district are you the guy parents here from I believe so it would be myself and 73 00:04:21,25 --> 00:04:26,00 or the superintendent as far as an overall communication we hope to we always want 74 00:04:26,01 --> 00:04:28,65 to communicate the whatever we know when we know it we always want to be 75 00:04:28,66 --> 00:04:32,91 transparent when those things do arise God forbid they do arise we want to make 76 00:04:32,92 --> 00:04:36,31 sure we've trained for those kinds of things as far as our responses and figure our 77 00:04:36,59 --> 00:04:40,86 crisis communication and things of that nature I don't much lesser scale we've gone 78 00:04:40,87 --> 00:04:44,27 over the school closure procedures and made some tweaks to that given all the new 79 00:04:44,28 --> 00:04:47,35 staff members Administratorship had so for the kids at home that's 80 00:04:47,36 --> 00:04:49,06 a bit more fun of a crisis to deal with as 81 00:04:49,07 --> 00:04:52,47 a school closure but we want to make sure we're prepared for everything and be able 82 00:04:52,48 --> 00:04:56,93 to handle any situation that comes about OK so what are you most looking forward to 83 00:04:56,94 --> 00:05:01,74 this year. I was looking forward to I mean just really it's such an exciting time 84 00:05:01,75 --> 00:05:05,52 to be in West Bloomfield schools with you know recently can completing all the Bond 85 00:05:05,53 --> 00:05:09,85 projects over the summer you know coming up and all the fun activities in the fall 86 00:05:09,86 --> 00:05:12,61 it's amazing to me just coming to this district and seeing all the great stuff 87 00:05:12,62 --> 00:05:15,42 that's happened in the first three or four weeks of the school year first month of 88 00:05:15,43 --> 00:05:18,95 the school year I can't believe the number of cool new stories that have come to me 89 00:05:19,25 --> 00:05:23,28 to then share with our community and share with our media so I just look to try to 90 00:05:23,29 --> 00:05:27,08 make my mark best I can try to find out where I fit into the overall machine that 91 00:05:27,09 --> 00:05:31,65 is is the district and try to make sure that I'm serving the you know the staff and 92 00:05:31,66 --> 00:05:37,14 the students first and foremost and then also the community at large and if. Anyone 93 00:05:37,15 --> 00:05:41,08 needed to get in touch with you or are you open to suggestion Absolutely just like 94 00:05:41,09 --> 00:05:45,55 nobody in my office and by all means look me up on the district website directory 95 00:05:45,66 --> 00:05:48,11 Daniel dot Dirk and. B.S.T. 96 00:05:48,12 --> 00:05:52,82 It out or still learning the e-mail title but nowhere are open and ready to listen 97 00:05:52,83 --> 00:05:56,93 to anything we can do to possibly serve the community better by all means look us 98 00:05:56,94 --> 00:06:01,33 up on social media Facebook Twitter and Instagram and we send out 99 00:06:01,34 --> 00:06:06,79 a weekly parent community newsletter that goes out every Friday most Fridays just 100 00:06:06,80 --> 00:06:09,76 with all the resources links the parents could possibly need all the cool new 101 00:06:09,77 --> 00:06:13,59 stories that are going on whether it's students doing great things staff doing 102 00:06:13,60 --> 00:06:16,47 great things you want to share that stuff with the community so they really know 103 00:06:16,86 --> 00:06:17,05 what 104 00:06:17,06 --> 00:06:21,74 a special place we really have here OK Well thank you so much and welcome thank you 105 00:06:21,75 --> 00:06:22,90 so much and I know you have 106 00:06:22,91 --> 00:06:26,50 a new baby now that new kind of new thirteen months are going like this on our call 107 00:06:26,51 --> 00:06:30,06 so I just don't know yes so of course I'll be going to West one feels Dorothy right 108 00:06:30,10 --> 00:06:32,89 now so thank you again for joining you so much and it's 109 00:06:32,90 --> 00:06:38,48 a pleasure Absolutely thank you. And again this has been dander can Westphal feel 110 00:06:38,49 --> 00:06:44,33 School District public relations and marketing corner. Thanks for watching 111 00:06:44,34 --> 00:06:48,59 a segment of the splash to catch the entire show or other segments watch us on Con 112 00:06:48,60 --> 00:06:50,65 cash and all fifteen or eighteen T. 113 00:06:50,66 --> 00:06:55,72 Channel ninety nine or look us up online at the splash dot tv and listen to us on W 114 00:06:55,73 --> 00:06:59,21 B L D eighty nine point three The all new flakes F.M. .