The Communications Office works both proactively and reactively all year long. There are a variety of projects in the works, in the parking lot (on-hold), and many that pop-up without advanced notice and require prioritization. Due to the workload variety and volume, there are many opportunities for students and we welcome the possibility of collaboration in a way that benefits students with real-world experience in marketing / communication, as well as to receive support to improve communication efforts for the FPS community. Please see below for a variety of project ideas, as well as semester-long internships.

At the moment, all internships are credit-based, but there may be opportunities in the future to be stipend-based. If you are interested in any of the following opportunities, please email Rochelle Santos.

Public Relations

Meltwater Expansion - Lists

Supervisor/Collaborator: Rochelle Santos

Project Description: Framingham Public Schools uses Meltwater to distribute press releases and for media monitoring. We currently utilize a Framingham-based list of media sources, as well as a broad Newsdesk list. We would love to expand our lists to be topic and location focused so that we can reach a more targeted audience of reporters and newsdesks.

Project Duration: 1-2 weeks

Meltwater Expansion - Templates

Supervisor/Collaborator: Rochelle Santos

Project Description: As part of our Meltwater use, we would love to create templates for each of our schools and departments. It would contain the proper department headers including the right contact information for the department or school leaders, as well as the ‘About Us’ boilerplate paragraphs for each respective school / department. This would be in conjunction with the boilerplate project below.

Project Duration: 1-2 weeks

Data

Website Maintenance / Merging & Creating Staff Directories

Supervisor/Collaborator: Rochelle Santos

Project Description: Framingham Public Schools are undergoing a significant facelift, rolling out new templates at each school through January 2023. One of the major challenges impacting our site webmasters is creating and merging staff directories. Using Google Sheets, we are looking for support to create a CSV file that is imported to our website, offering site viewers access to a staff directory with name, title, brief bio, photo, and email address. In an ideal world, this would be an automated process from our student information system or staff management system. 

Project Duration: Ongoing

Social Media Audit / Analytics

Supervisor/Collaborator: Mariah Linnett

Project Description: Framingham Public Schools is currently active on multiple social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, & YouTube. We target our content to FPS Community members (parents, staff, community) based on what they need to know, what they want to know, and what we think may be interesting, entertaining, or informative, AND that aligns with our mission. We could really use some support in reviewing our analytics, documenting what is working, and receiving recommendations to make changes when our post content is not connecting with our audience(s).  A social media audit would consist of the following:

• • Reviewing FPS / School / Department presence

  • Documenting post frequency

  • Analyzing the engagement / interactions

  • And more….

Project Duration: A semester

Writing

Smore / Newsletter Planner

Supervisor/Collaborator: Rochelle Santos

Project Description: The Media and Communications Office publishes two monthly Newsletters and one quarterly distribution using the Smore newsletter platform. These newsletters are shared with staff, posted to the website, shared on social media, and emailed/texted to families.

The first newsletter is a Date-Driven Smore which typically comes out just before or on the 1st of the month. It shares important dates from the district calendar which include no school days, operational early release reminders, etc. It also includes the national and/or social celebrations that we will be posting about on social media. These may include things like attendance awareness month, national principals month, etc.  The newsletter has a template already, but needs to be written / compiled every month with new information.

The DNA is a monthly newsletter that comes out mid-month and contains District News and Announcements (hence the title!). This newsletter is focused on sharing community events and other good news from our schools. Staff members fill out a Google Form with their good news that we then integrate into the newsletter. There is a general template, but new information is to be added each month.

According to School Committee Policy, FPS also shares a Quarterly Distribution of Material. This quarterly distribution shares translated PDF flyers for framingham-based, youth-oriented, non-profit organizations. For context, this typically includes program information from our local Parks and Recreation Department, other youth sports and arts organizations, and family resources, but there are other inclusions as well. This is a bit more formal in that there are requirements and criteria to be met according to school committee policy: https://www.framingham.k12.ma.us/domain/3186. This is more of a compilation of information vs. actual writing.

Project Duration: Two weeks - one month prep time for each monthly newsletter OR one month prep for the Quarterly Distribution, ongoing through June

Awareness Campaign Planning

Supervisor/Collaborator: Mariah Linnett and Rochelle Santos

Project Description: Framingham Public Schools honors and acknowledges many different holidays (cultural, religious, or fun national trends), as well as various awareness events like, Autism Acceptance Month in April, Disability Pride Month in July, Pride Month in June, etc. These are opportunities to connect with our community stakeholders throughout the school year while also furthering our mission to ‘embrace differences and inspire futures’ . The project owner would collaborate with the Creative Communications Designer and the Media and Communications Manager to plan the social media posts along with website content to support these daily, weekly, or monthly campaigns.  There are several times throughout the year where we need to execute awareness campaigns which may include copywriting, image creation, and/or video content. The key thing with this project is campaign planning and making sure that content is targeted to the right audience and the right platform. In addition to planning and executing the content, the project owner would need to document the campaign for future reference. 

To provide an example, we can reference elements from last June’s Pride Month campaign.

• • #FPSPrideDay: Advanced notice email to all families and staff members to wear rainbow colors or purple on the same day. Information is reiterated on our website and on social media.

  • Long-form content may include a separate news article on our website that shares information of historical importance.

  • Updated cover photos and profile pictures on social media.

  • Process to gather photos from families and staff with a plan to utilize that UGC (user-generated content) to push something back out to the community.

  • The district will also promote the City’s annual Pride Celebration. 

Project Duration: A semester (to get as many plans completed as possible) or ongoing

"About Us" Boilerplate Writing

Supervisor/Collaborator: Rochelle Santos

Project Description: When the Communications Office sends out Press Releases, we always include an 'about' section for the District as a whole, as well as an 'about' section for the school, department, or partnering organizations. This is to help provide context and information to the recipients. These 'about' sections are written as needed, but would be really helpful if they were prepared in advance and with consistency across the mentioned elements and length.   

Project Duration: 3-4 weeks or a semester