Podcast broadcasts Seneca Valley school information to the world
JACKSON TWP — Seneca Valley School District’s podcast sometimes teaches its superintendent, Tracy Vitale, something she didn’t know, whether it be about the personality of one of her staff members or information on an upcoming school event.
After more than four years and 98 episodes of “Voices, a Podcast from Seneca Valley School District,” the COVID-initiated project continues to inform people inside and outside the district about the district and the people who comprise it.
Vitale said the podcast is another way the school district is evolving to meet the needs of its students and the school community.
“It's really opened my eyes that people truly do get their news in different ways,” Vitale said. “I also think it's valuable because schools are real people. You don't know what people in administration do, you don't know what the teacher next-door to your child's teacher do on a daily basis unless you hear from them directly.”
On Monday, Feb. 24, the school district’s communication department and its podcast host, Jeff Krakoff, were recording an episode featuring a talk with faculty in the student services department. Krakoff, president of Krakoff Communications, produces the podcast once a month now based on input from the district’s communication department, which gets information to Krakoff, who is not a school district employee.
“It does work that I don't know any of the answers to these questions,” Krakoff said. “The team would identify what's a good story, who is the best person from the district, whether it's staff or students, and would even prepare half a dozen questions so whatever the topic, 'Tell me about this.'
“I just ask about anything interesting and that's where the talks go.”
Linda Andreassi, communications director of Seneca Valley, said the podcast is a product of the COVID-19 pandemic, and started to help district administrators spread the word about protocols for returning to school in-person.
The first 14 episodes of the podcast were released Aug. 19, 2020, and were made to be a comprehensive look at how students would return to school for the school year after virtual learning became the norm in March 2020. Andreassi said the podcast was a way to release information while also making school district families feel connected.
“It was really helpful in providing to parents the expectations and what their children could expect to occur in a return to school,” Andreassi said. “It was very helpful. We have a lot of communication methods here but it was a really helpful addition because a lot of parents said it just made them feel a little more connected than the typical written communication.”
The initial podcast series received a good reception from families in the district, Andreassi said, because it helped prepare them for a school year that would look pretty different from previous years. The district conveyed this plethora of information by having faculty from different departments tackle their specific duties with Krakoff one episode at a time.
“Our return to school featured everything from a school board member who spoke, a principal who spoke, so basically department heads and building administration,” Andreassi said. “We talked about just about everything you could imagine and how it impacted every department.”
Andreassi said the podcast could help answer questions thanks to Krakoff’s hosting style.
“We had our food service director share how he was going to handle social distancing at lunch,” Andreassi said. “Transportation, how would that look with students on the bus and transportation. If (parents) called in with questions, we could refer them to that podcast.”
Following good reception of the initial series, Seneca Valley continued using the podcast to share information about different departments, and different events and initiatives coming out of the district.
“It did start more about COVID, but somewhere around (episode) 18, 19, we got people don't know about the foundation and what it does,” Krakoff said. “There's always a call to action, it's either register for the run, or here's a fundraiser, or maybe it's in the summer, get your kindergartner ready. They tend to be somewhat timely.”
Each podcast episode begins with a welcome from Krakoff, who then introduces the episode’s guest or guests and what the episode will cover information-wise. Krakoff typically introduces the guest right away, to keep the podcast episodes short — never over 30 minutes.
Tiffany Hernandez, content marketing specialist at the school district, said she helps book the guests on the podcast after coming up with a theme or communication goal for an episode. On Feb. 24, Krakoff interviewed faculty in the student services department, who spoke about their roles in the district.
“Our student services department does amazing things,” Hernandez said, “and this podcast is going to be a great way for our students to know and hear directly from these directors what they know, what they are doing with our students and how our district is better for it.”
Vitale and Andreassi each said the podcast is a method of contact which has evolved alongside the interests of students, seeing that the current generation grew up with audio formats being a major player in entertainment and communication.
Andreassi said the podcast’s second most popular episode was one that featured a school police officer, who discussed school safety and policies. She attributed some of its popularity to its usefulness in conveying school safety information in a way that is more appealing to the students it affects.
“She talked about very frankly student safety, things parents should be looking for. She did such a good job of sharing information,” Andreassi said. “It probably had so many downloads because parents said, 'sit down and listen to this,' to their child.”
Each episode might follow an outline set out by the communications department, but Krakoff said he tries to progress the conversation naturally to keep the guests authentic. This is an element of the communication method that Vitale said she has come to greatly appreciate.
“This is a chance to tell our stories in an authentic way that's not scripted,” Vitale said, “and Mr. Krakoff has a gift of getting that out of people, including me.”
With the podcast continuing to get warm reception from families — and even listens from people in countries including Singapore and Germany — Vitale said she can picture the podcast expanding even more to further appeal to listeners. She said that because grade school students seem to prefer visuals to accompany their learning, video could become part of the production in the future.
“All the podcasts I listen to now also have video, and I am a very visual person,” Vitale said. “I don't know if we will go in that direction … But I wonder if there's kind of a visual piece out there they want to see.”
“Voices, a Podcast from Seneca Valley School District,” is available on streaming platforms including Spotify, Apple Podcasts and more.
