Why Collective Authorship?
Collective Authorship reimagines school marketing by shifting from a singular, top-down narrative to a decentralized model where every staff member becomes a co-author of the district's story. This approach taps into the authentic, daily experiences within schools, showcasing the myriad "moments of awe" that often go unseen.

Increased Visibility and Engagement
When more individuals are contributing stories, the district can saturate its narrative across multiple platforms, making the amazing things happening in schools more visible to the community, prospective families, and potential staff.

Strategic Alignment
Collective Authorship connects everyday stories to broader district goals, such as student enrollment and achievement, family engagement, and staff recruitment and retention, demonstrating the impact of daily efforts on the overall mission.

Authentic Storytelling
Instead of a singular, controlled message, Collective Authorship allows for a multitude of diverse, first-hand stories to be shared, creating a more genuine and relatable portrayal of the district

Enhanced Culture and Climate
By celebrating daily wins and empowering staff to share their experiences, this framework fosters a positive, inclusive organizational culture and promotes a sense of belonging and agency among employees.
Overcome Barriers
By providing easy-to-use tools and a supportive environment, Collective Authorship helps overcome common barriers to storytelling, such as lack of time or discomfort with technology, making it simple for everyone to contribute.
Why Collective Authorship?
Collective Authorship reimagines school marketing by shifting from a singular, top-down narrative to a decentralized model where every staff member becomes a co-author of the district's story. This approach taps into the authentic, daily experiences within schools, showcasing the myriad "moments of awe" that often go unseen.

Authentic Storytelling
Instead of a singular, controlled message, Collective Authorship allows for a multitude of diverse, first-hand stories to be shared, creating a more genuine and relatable portrayal of the district

Increased Visibility and Engagement
When more individuals are contributing stories, the district can saturate its narrative across multiple platforms, making the amazing things happening in schools more visible to the community, prospective families, and potential staff.

Enhanced Culture and Climate
By celebrating daily wins and empowering staff to share their experiences, this framework fosters a positive, inclusive organizational culture and promotes a sense of belonging and agency among employees.

Strategic Alignment
Collective Authorship connects everyday stories to broader district goals, such as student enrollment and achievement, family engagement, and staff recruitment and retention, demonstrating the impact of daily efforts on the overall mission.
Overcome Barriers
By providing easy-to-use tools and a supportive environment, Collective Authorship helps overcome common barriers to storytelling, such as lack of time or discomfort with technology, making it simple for everyone to contribute.
Who's Telling Your Story?
In so many districts all over the country there are, paradoxically, too many good stories to tell and not enough stories to share. Does that sound like your district, too? It’s no wonder: Your comms team can’t bend time and space to cover every single outstanding moment happening in every school every day. But have you considered asking your teachers to help?
What if & Why Not?
Leading a small district like Au Gres-Sims and leading Saginaw ISD are vastly different experiences, to say the least. But in both circumstances, Collier has prioritized acting as a servant leader. That means constructing an organizational identity that includes and empowers those around him.
SchoolCEO Podcast: Collective Authorship
This episode is a look inside how to grow a reputable district brand. While storytelling is often preached about, Saginaw ISD is actively telling its story with the help of hundreds of voices within the district.
In this episode, you'll learn:
How can you share different perspectives across your district?
How do you get teachers and staff to be your district’s ambassadors?
Can storytelling impact your district's culture?
Is culture more important than tools and tactics?
How can you make your district’s strengths more visible?
Brand Ambassadors
Over the course of a year, Lynette White developed 10 modules to train Santa Ana employees. Crucially, the very first module became brand training—showing trainees how to align their storytelling to the district’s vision, mission and values. Additional lessons ranged from how to use the most popular social media platforms to capturing high-quality photos and video to creating content calendars to using Canva.
Learn how to:
Teachers and staff who choose to become brand ambassadors have a lot to gain
Find or develop a course to train interested employees how to tell stories that align with your brand
Have a brand cheat sheet and a technical FAQ ready for brand ambassadors to help them as they go