Reputation is Everything
With more than 20 years of experience in the public sector, Syntax has earned a reputation for providing affordable, cost-effective services tailored to the client’s specific needs. Whether its year-round services, a strategic campaign that requires voter-approval, or an accurate, quantitative short-term study, Syntax has the track record and expertise to deliver the right solution for you.
A Snapshot of Our Work
Quantitative Research
Syntax conducted a telephone survey to poll parents in the City of Long Beach, NY to determine perceptions regarding optimum start/dismissal times, as the Long Beach School District was looking to align bell schedules and overhaul/upgrade its bus fleet. Once the survey was complete, Syntax prepared a detailed report analyzing the results and helped to reaffirm the best option in terms of convenience to parents and equity and continuity among schools.
Grass Roots Community Relations
Syntax is currently working with the Valley Hospital of Ridgewood, NJ – the second busiest hospital in the State – to spearhead the entire marketing communications and community relations plan for a significant zoning change and revitalization of the current hospital campus. This project utilizes all of our services – research, strategic direction, training, and conventional marketing communications products.
Strategic Voter Campaign
Syntax managed and implemented a large-scale sales tax levy campaign that resulted in the voter approval of $2.7 billion in construction projects to expand and improve facilities in the sprawling Orange County School System in central Florida, the 14th largest in the United States. The bond initiative was to be funded through a half-cent increase in the countywide sales tax. The campaign entailed educating and polling county residents, creating a clear and concise message as to impact and importance of revitalizing the schools, media relations, and training. Improvement projects are currently underway or planned in some 200 schools.
Conventional Year-Round Marketing Communications
Like many clients, the East Meadow Union Free School District hired Syntax to execute year-round community relations services. At the heart of this relationship was the ‘branding’ of the district, with the development of an identity, supported by the creation of a logo/masthead and the writing, design, editing, and printing of a community newsletter, regularly published throughout the year (this included a special annual issue dedicated exclusively to advertisement of the school budget), as well as various special intent materials. Accompanying these products was a weekly stream of press releases written and distributed to local, and often regional, media, as well as media outreach to secure electronic and daily newspaper coverage, as well as media management and consultation with the district during times of crisis.
Technology Solutions
Syntax designed, programmed, and continues to host a comprehensive and attractive user-friendly website for the Harborfields Central School District that is kept up-to-date as information changes. This includes a ‘self-updating’ dynamic calendar of school events, lunch menus, testing schedules, news flashes, employment opportunities, a directory of schools equipped with all of the necessary contact information (phone numbers and emails) and directions. The site even contains a tax calculator that allows residents to compute their school tax bill portion based on their assessed value and the current school tax rate. The site, like many others created by Syntax, contains an administrative area that allows school officials access to make their own updates, whenever they need to. Syntax has also developed websites that support email for all district employees to connect with one another (not for general public use).
