The world is watching and it is not deceived.
By now you’ve probably seen the most unusual letter, “An Important Message”, from Central Bucks School District about how their Public Relations firm, Devine and Partners, has quit.
(Since when has a school district notified families of contractors quitting? Since when did that qualify as an important message? Last month the board approved a broadband fiber contract. Should that fizzle, will it rise to the same level of importance?)
CB is blaming “a group of community members”—would that be some of our own students who started a petition asking D&P to leave?—who allegedly harassed D&P’s clients and staff.
From D&P’s website:
Today, D+P represents respected companies, brands and institutions like Comcast Spectacor, Deloitte, the William Penn Foundation, Drexel University and the Philadelphia Zoo among many others. D+P prides itself on creating long-term relationships with its clients.
Can anyone believe that Comcast, Drexel, et al. are afraid of a few people in Bucks County? Or is it more likely that they don’t want their names linked with the ugly reputation of the actions of the Central Bucks School Board?
“Central Bucks School District”, the entity that signed the letter, has failed to give us any details beyond accusation and spin.
We would like to know more. The letter does not characterize the nature of the “attacks.” We have heard that the publicity around CB’s poisonous reputation made D&P’s clients uncomfortable. They did not want to be associated with an entity so widely unpopular for harmful and anti-intellectual policies.
In the absence of any further details or information, all we can know is the following:
CB took the unusual step of hiring a public relations firm from Philadelphia to represent them at a time when our publicity was notoriously terrible.
The cost was said to be $15,000 per month.
Last month, according to documents attached to the school board agenda, D&P actually billed CB for $30,000.
One board member asked for an itemized invoice to understand how that money was helping the district. Will she even get a response?
Many speakers during public comment have asked for a rationale for the hiring of and continued payment to the PR firm, which has not been forthcoming.
Central Bucks’ reputation continues to plummet, most recently in the form of 74 school board directors reprimanding CB for enacting policies that have “tainted the public’s trust in School Boards to foster educational, inclusive, and tolerant environments for learning. The consequences of implementing extreme, partisan policies that stifle a student’s ability to learn true history, to express themselves fully, and to be supported by the people around them will be regrettable and irrevocable.”
Our community is as divided as ever.
The obvious working hypothesis: CB’s brand is so toxic, their own PR firm couldn’t spin it. So they quit. And to avoid transparency and facing the consequences, CB has chosen to play the victim, accuse, and blame. To CB’s leaders, it’s always someone else’s fault.
You can lay the blame wherever you like, but when a reputation becomes toxic, nobody wants to sit with you. Evidently D&P believes CB is beyond their PR expertise. Our leaders would prefer that you think that our only issue is a group of malcontents: people who have the nerve to mind that we’re on a desperately unpopular, undemocratic tack.
News for our CB leadership: your own PR firm is telling you that they cannot paper over your bad policies. Blaming your own constituents for the inevitable consequences of your bad decisions will deceive no one.
D&P, their clients, 74+ school board directors, 15+ national & local civil rights, education rights, literacy, and academic groups, and the public at large know your true colors.