Dominguez joined other South Plains superintendents from Smyer and Olton at the Public Information Officer training. "One of my biggest takeaways is that when an incident happens, communication is not separate from the response. It's part of the response," Dominguez said.
The training pulls district leaders away from their small South Plains communities to work directly with a law enforcement training academy, signaling how seriously these districts are treating crisis communication. Hale Center, Smyer and Olton are smaller districts, the kind where a school emergency touches nearly every family in town fast.
For parents in these communities, district leaders are getting hands-on instruction in how to get accurate information out quickly when something goes wrong at school, rather than scrambling to figure it out in the moment. In a small town, rumors travel faster than official statements. A superintendent who knows how to communicate under pressure can be the difference between calm and panic in the first minutes of a crisis.
Three South Plains superintendents drove hours to Fort Worth this week to learn a lesson that comes down to one idea: talking to your community during an emergency isn't extra work. It's the job.