Galesburg District 205 is the latest school district in the region to partner with a St. Louis company that publishes quarterly magazines for local families and the community.
The school board approved a two-year contract with Journey 12 at $113,132 a year. That includes the production of full-color, 24-page magazines mailed to residences and businesses four times a year.
Jennifer Vance, principal of Bright Futures Preschool and a member of Galesburg District 205’s Stakeholder Engagement Committee, said the magazine will be like a more modern and fancier version of Pencil Points, a print supplement that used to be published and distributed in the Galesburg Register-Mail.
“The difference with this is the company actually conducts the interviews and develops the original content. They’re professionally written stories by experienced education editors. They have high quality graphic design. They handle the production and the distribution of the magazine,” Vance said. “And it is delivered to all residential and commercial addresses within our district.”
Journey 12 already works with nearly 70 districts in Illinois, including Macomb District 185 and Monmouth-Roseville 238.
In Galesburg, the quarterly magazine will be delivered to 16,437 addresses at a cost of around $6.88 per household a year. The district will also receive 300 copies per the contract, and Journey 12 will create a digital landing page and annual community impact video.
Vance said producing a magazine represents a shift from taxpayers having to seek out information about the school district to the district delivering messages directly to their homes.
“One thing that resonated with us is a brand identity that is left unattended by its district or its stewards will be shaped by others,” Vance said. “So instead of having our message spread at the hairdressers or a restaurant or at the pool our message is given directly from us to our stakeholders.”
Craig Miller, founder and chief engagement officer for Journey 12, said the contract price would be locked in, even if there are postage increases in the next two years.
The district will use some grant funds to cover the cost of the magazine by shifting resources from Title I, a federal program that provides financial assistance to districts with high percentages of low-income students.
Jennifer Hamm, assistant superintendent for finance and operations, said she hopes the district continues to have federal Title I dollars, and plans to use money set aside the last few years for school supplies to go toward the magazine.
“I’ve had lots of people in the community that want to donate school supplies and be a part of that process. So we're creating partnerships through them donating and being a part of the school supply donation. Then we'll be able to take that money and apply it towards this project so that we can further engage community partners,” Hamm said.
The district expects the first magazine to arrive in mailboxes in October.
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