OCALA, FL (352today.com) – An update on Goal Five of the Marion County Public School Board Strategic Plan was shared during the board’s work session on Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025.
Goal Five focuses on engagement and communications by increasing stakeholder dialog, partnerships and collaboration, to meet their needs and celebrate success, said Kevin Christian, Marion County Public Schools director of public relations.
The key strategies include expanding community partnerships to support student success, strengthening two-way communications with families through improved transparency and engagement, and enhancing internal communication by improving information access and by recognizing employee contributions.
Measuring the standards
Among the objectives of Goal Five, which include a number of outcome metrics that measure its success, include increasing the percentage of families satisfied with the communication. This year’s number, at 78 percent, was a 12 percent improvement over last year; the target is 80 percent. The next outcome metric is an increase in the percentage of staff satisfied with communication; as of Nov. 20, that number isn’t available as the survey has yet to be completed for 2025, but based on the informal feedback the school district has received and the comments that they’ve received from around the district, the belief is the number will be significantly higher compared to past years. The school district also wants to increase the numbers on their social media platforms, which is up nearly 21 percent to a little over 27,500 and above their target by 10 percent, said Christian.
The school district would also like to increase engagement on its website, having switched website platforms the previous year. Last year’s number was a little over 4 million; when Christian checked totals the previous week, the website had more than 7 million visits. Engagement has also increased on Facebook with 9 percent growth over last year, to 70 percent of the goal. Engagement on X has been a challenge, down 44 percent, which the school district believes is due to the brand change from Twitter to X. The school district is not posting on X as much as they are on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, and they’re finding the same with their school-based sites–they’re focusing more on Facebook, which tends to have a larger audience. But YouTube that’s up 36 percent, and there is also an effort to increase the number of community partnerships.
“We’ve been using the Peachjar eflyer service for just under 10 years, and a lot of people may say what is that,” said Christian. “It’s basically an eflyer service where years ago, the school district used to help community organizations by distributing their paper-based flyers, we don’t do that anymore. We use an eflyer service that’s far more affordable than actually printing paper and counting those papers out by classroom and having the teacher distribute it to each student. In just the last year, we’re up in terms of approval [more than] 2 percent over the previous year. We delivered just under 2 million emails, and 1 million impressions with a 66 percent open rate. The school district avoided 35.5 million sheets of paper, saving 4,200 trees in the process.”
Setting the pace
The school district is continuing with its leadership program, and Class Four is on pace to graduate in May. The school district also has learning and engagement opportunities when it comes to various events, including the Veterans Day ceremony, which the school district has provided for 19 consecutive years, along with its attendant opportunities for educating the public, to the community. The school district will also be involved with the Ocala Christmas Parade on Dec. 13. This will be the 25th year that the school district has provided coverage of that event for the community, as well as the Marion County Student Media Festival next April which has been a community staple for a quarter of a century.
The school district’s Dads on Duty program also offers a great opportunity for male role models to engage with students. The Back-to-School Community Giveback event saw over 6,000 backpacks filled with school supplies given out free of charge, largely due to the efforts of the Community Foundation for Ocala/Marion County and many volunteers, said Christian.
However, the Marion County Public School Board’s engagement with state legislators plays a huge role in securing the success of many of the programs in the district, said Christian. The student members who sit on the dais during the MCPS board meetings have also made a difference. A strong relationship between the district and the Ocala Metro Chamber & Economic Partnership has seen the CEP take part in groundbreakings, ribbon cuttings and grand openings. There’s also the Fitness and Nutrition in Schools program in collaboration with the Marion County Hospital District. CareerSource in Citrus, Levy and Marion counties partners with the school district for Career Expo events, both in terms of students exploring careers and for adults in the community who want to become employees in Marion County Public Schools, said Christian.
Forging long-lasting bonds
The Public Education Foundation is proud to serve as the school district’s direct support organization. It’s a 501(c)(3) nonprofit supporting Marion County Public Schools, with their actions focusing on community interests on public education to initiate support, underwrite projects benefitting students, teachers, administrators and the school district, said Meghan Magamoll, Public Education Foundation of Marion County executive director.
Safety, careers choices and well-being
An expanded and extended three-year partnership with the foundation’s Safe Schools teams was made possible with their partnership with fundraising nonprofit McKenzie’s Moment. At the end of last year, they completed 3M security film applications on windows at every single school across the district. The foundation contributed to purchasing an additional item for their Gaggle software programming, and during this school year, there will be the installation of security shades on every classroom door window. They’ve all been outfitted, and the installation has been happening school by school. It’s all from the foundation’s partnership with McKenzie’s Moment, with a total contribution of $610,000 to make schools safer faster, said Magamoll.
“We continued our partnership with the district’s mental health and wellness team, but this time we switched our efforts to support attendance initiatives, attendance banners, we’re purchasing the new district attendance/absenteeism brochures, and we recently established a donor support fund for school attendance initiatives,” said Magamoll. “In regard to supporting career and technological education opportunities, recently you would’ve seen the World Equestrian Center had hosted their annual festival and through that partnership, we were able to travel the county to eight different schools taking celebrity chefs to meet with our students, to provide relevant and real-world insight into career opportunities in culinary and hospitality. Our students were then able to go to the World Equestrian Center and work alongside those chefs during the festival culminating in a student cooking competition where our students cooked in front of an audience of 1,700 attendees.”
At the end of the weekend, the foundation was presented a check for $25,000, and every single dollar will go back into the culinary programs providing resources, student equipment, uniforms and experience. That partnership has resulted in $100,000 to support the school district schools, said Magamoll.
“We entered into year two of our partnership with the HCA Foundation to support our Healthcare Pathways, and a total of $60,000 as an investment to increase student interest in healthcare careers, increase participation in our pathways, ultimately increasing our certification completion rate,” said Magamoll. “This past year, through this funding support, 106 CNA students earned their CPR certification, 84 students participated in job shadowing at HCA and 640 students completed the Stop the Bleed training, thanks to this HCA partnership.”
Partnerships that are new or are expanded through the foundation include The Ocala Film Derby, having increased student support through the generosity of donors within the community, offering more than $15,000 in scholarships for students participating in the derby initiative. Another partnership was announced through Duke Energy; the foundation will host a STEM Summer Research Academy in the summer of 2026, in an extension of the Big Springs STEM program. The new investment partnership from Duke brought their partnership dollars to a total of $30,000 for this fiscal school year. The foundation continued its partnership with Florida KidCare to support attendance initiatives, with the foundation also continuing its support of the Kids Tag Art program as their fiscal agent, and they expanded their partnership with U.S. Lastinger’s New World Reading Initiative, as this collaboration promotes literacy from VPK through fifth grade, said Magamoll.