BES is a 21-year-old education nonprofit with a strong track record of launching high-performing schools across the United States and fostering dynamic school leadership. “Building Excellent Schools” was the original mission of BES at its founding in 2001, in response to the poor academic outcomes of the state’s early charter schools. The BES Fellowship was created to provide intensive, full-time training to individuals to create new charter schools of the highest quality. BES became equated with the “no excuses” philosophy of charter school models, which espoused strict and punitive zero tolerance policies for students, parents and teachers.
The challenge
When Aasimah Navlakhi took over as CEO of BES in 2019, she led the organization through a discovery process that determined the organization’s inflexible “top down” practices were rooted in white supremacist culture. The organization started the process of revamping its programs to promote “community-responsive” charters, and launched a new strategic plan to become an actively antiracist organization. BES rebranded, standing for “Build. Excel. Sustain.”
They reached out to Kelso Communications (Kcomm) for a public relations strategy to tell the story of their shift to a focus on the future that included more support for non-charter school models.
Our approach
Because BES was willing to speak openly and honestly about their “no excuses” roots, organizational awakening and transition plan, this opened up our strategy to lead boldly, positioning BES as the organization well on its way to becoming an actively antiracist organization, at the same time other companies were struggling to craft diversity value statements in the wake of America’s racial reckoning in the summer of 2020. We targeted online and traditional print education publications, and podcasts that focused on equity in education.
Our first PR pitches in fall 2021 focused on the steps that leaders of schools, districts and any organization can take to “walk the walk” of diversity, equity and inclusion, instead of simply “talking the talk.” Navlakhi appeared on the national Leading Equity podcast, for a discussion called “How to Identify White Supremacy Culture With Your Organization.”
This theme was referenced in a guest blog co-authored by BES board members Charles Mitchell and Chris Clements titled “What School Leaders Can Teach Business Leaders,” in “Real Leaders.”
The second wave of pitches in spring 2022 elevated the voices of individual school leaders at BES-founded schools. The story “New charter school in Mount Vernon will be the first in a decade in Lower Hudson” shares the story of a New York-based BES founder whose STEM curriculum includes trauma-informed mental health counseling for her majority minority student population. Navlakhi’s op-ed in the national education outlet “The 74” titled “CRT Law Undermines Texas Charter School for Black and Latino Students” elevated the damage caused by an erroneous debate about critical race theory that delayed a Black BES school leader’s opening. As of this award submission, an Education Next story with Pondiscio is in the works about a Black BES founder who is working to open his school in Schenectady, NY.
Results
With 11 earned hits, authored pieces, podcast appearances and speaking engagements in 10 months, Kcomm far surpassed the one earned media hit and one placed media hit per quarter goal set by BES. Stories directly supported BES’ strategic goals, dramatically increasing interest in their brand as measured by a 78-233% increase in social media engagement when these articles were shared.
Katy McArthur, former director of communications at BES, provided this feedback:
“Kcomm shared our organization’s passion for equity in education. Their level of responsiveness, attention to detail and ability to quickly ingrain themselves in our company’s culture and context allowed us to immediately begin planning and executing at a high level.”