In our experience, the average voting return for school board elections is around 10%. This is not because parents aren’t interested. They are just busy.
For postal voting, your database of parent emails and postal addresses must be up-to-date.
For electronic voting, an accurate database of parent emails and mobile phone numbers is critical.
A Returning Officer from outside the school may not have access to all the opportunities you have to publicise your election. It only takes a few minutes to supplement the Returning Officer’s effort.
- Use your school website to advertise your election.
- Use your school newsletter: it only needs one sentence about your election every week for six weeks.
- Use your reception front door: Put up a notice on your FRONT DOOR window.
- Use a community notice-board / neighbourhood website or parish bulletins to let people know an election is under way.
- Invite candidates to stand at the front gate for drop-off and pick-up and distribute their own campaign materials (they may be too shy to ask).
- Encourage candidates by shoulder-tapping.
- Distribute candidate statements at your parent-teacher meeting.
- The least effective strategy is a Meet-the-candidates meeting. However, a Candidate Board or stand at a regular parent hui encourages interest.
- Use the NZSTA promotional materials.(external link)
- Set a participation target, realistically based on your participation rate for your last election. Do you know what your last election participation rate was? If your last participation rate was 15%, raise it by 5%. (Inform your Returning Officer! She/he won’t be able to do this alone.)
Community participation is important. The research says it has an impact on student learning.