MAX A. PUGH JR.Sr. Web Specialist, Office of Communications, Prince George's County Public Schools

Mobility: Connecting PeopleWhere They Are

Max A. Pugh Jr., Senior Web Specialist, Office of Communicationsmpugh@pgcps.org

April 13, 2017

2PrinceGeorge’sCountyPublicSchools(PGCPS),PrinceGeorge’sCounty,Maryland

About Prince George’s County Public Schools

§ 209 schools in urban, suburban and rural settings across 500 square miles

§ 131,000 students in Grades PreK – 12§ 156 languages from 147 countries§ 30 percent Hispanic/Latino§ 61 percent African American

3PrinceGeorge’sCountyPublicSchools(PGCPS),PrinceGeorge’sCounty,Maryland

Connecting People: Past Model

§ Website-driven§ Backpack flyers§ Automatic calls to homes§ School- and

Community-based Events

4PrinceGeorge’sCountyPublicSchools(PGCPS),PrinceGeorge’sCounty,Maryland

Connecting People: The Dilemma

Changing habits§ Time

– In 2007, visitors spent an average of 9 minutes on any given page– In 2016, visitors spent an average of 56 seconds on any given page

§ Fragmentation of digital environment§ Personalization and localization

– As time on page decreased over time, the number of pages visitors viewed increased

– School directory pages and school website visits increased§ My way: my language, my time, and at my discretion

5PrinceGeorge’sCountyPublicSchools(PGCPS),PrinceGeorge’sCounty,Maryland

Connecting People: Evolving Solution

PGCPS.ORG website§ Mobile optimized§ Student- and parent-focus§ Reduction of content§ Collection of content –

global content pushed to local content

§ Multilingual – PGCPS enespañol

6PrinceGeorge’sCountyPublicSchools(PGCPS),PrinceGeorge’sCounty,Maryland

Connecting People: Evolving Solution

Pulling people and pushing content§ Implemented email and text messaging outreach system through

GovDelivery- English and Spanish- 856 local (school) and global (central office) subscription topics- 187,000 subscribers (79,000 wireless)- 3.9 million subscriptions- 2.5 million SMS Messages sent last year

§ Connection with social media via Twitter (93K followers and Facebook (19K likes)

7PrinceGeorge’sCountyPublicSchools(PGCPS),PrinceGeorge’sCounty,Maryland

Connecting People: How are we doing?

Engagement§ 20 percent increase in visitor engagement with our website

content§ Growth of 14 percent in subscribers to GovDelivery over last 12

months§ Nearly 60 percent subscriber engagement rate§ Engagement is higher the more local (school-based) the content

or message

8PrinceGeorge’sCountyPublicSchools(PGCPS),PrinceGeorge’sCounty,Maryland

Connecting People: Where do we go?

Produce more localized content and increase subscription choices

§ Implement late bus alerts project through GovDelivery§ Increase connection of content to school websites and

directories§ Increase video content (school promos, live spotlights)§ Offer more languages

9PrinceGeorge’sCountyPublicSchools(PGCPS),PrinceGeorge’sCounty,Maryland

Mobility: Connecting PeopleWhere They Are

Max A. Pugh Jr., Senior Web Specialist, Office of Communicationsmpugh@pgcps.org

April 13, 2017

10PrinceGeorge’sCountyPublicSchools(PGCPS),PrinceGeorge’sCounty,Maryland