Buncombe County Schools is sending families and community members back to school - to Parent University, that is.
BCS’ communications team created a series of short videos for their website to educate the public about student opportunities and school system operations. Parent University rolled out in August in response to requests from Board of Education members for a new way to engage with parents.
The first video, which has already racked up more than 15,000 views, features district leaders talking about the 2025-26 school year’s theme – #LeadTheClimb. Chief Communications Officer Ken Ulmer said the production included coordinating a few wardrobe changes and assembling a supporting cast of student athletes and musicians.
“Our Superintendent, Dr. Rob Jackson was the John Lennon to my Paul McCartney. We developed a concept and script that really helped capture the feeling of our collective BCS family,” he said. “Our Associate Superintendent, Dr. Jennifer Reed and Assistant Superintendents Dr. Jamie Johnson and Chip Cody are great sports. Whether it was holding a goat or receiving a pass, they were there for it!”
Parent University currently includes six videos, with new episodes dropping monthly. Some videos focus on districtwide topics like BCS’ cell phone policy, the new North Carolina Student Information System (NCSIS) and the county’s instructional framework. Others take viewers inside school buildings to learn about programs like career and technical education (CTE) and dual language programs.
All of them are written and produced within the district by BCS’ communications team, which includes three former journalists and a social media manager.
For Ulmer, who worked in broadcast news for decades before joining BCS in 2020, the project is a callback to his time as a TV host, anchor and producer – with a few twists. The team films on either a professional JVC camera or an iPhone with a rig, videos are edited in Adobe Premiere and the graphics are built in Canva.
“My first TV reporting job was 30 years ago, when field gear weighed about 70 pounds and you’d have to edit tape-to-tape, analog,” he said. “In 2025, Papaw here is cruising like George Jetson with gear that’s really portable, and non-linear editing.”
Parent University has been a hit – garnering local media coverage and thousands of views. The videos are embedded on the district website, posted to their social media channels and linked in the BCS parent portal. Staff members also find them useful to share in response to phone calls or emails from the public.
For other districts looking to start a similar initiative, Ulmer suggests making use of existing photo and video resources to save valuable staff time. For an upcoming piece on transportation, for example, his team is delving into the archives for visuals of snow days, buses and car lines.
“Our team has a great photo and video library. This project helps us get more life out of them beyond a webstory or social media post,” he said. “If a district has an existing video that’s fairly evergreen and promotes a specific program or department, consider repurposing it and adding Parent University branding.”
Another tip – upload the final script to YouTube along with your video. This ensures accurate subtitles and facilitates better translations into other languages.
To learn more about Parent University, visit buncombeschools.org.