History

Schools, as a formal educational institution, surely require the support, involvement, and active participation of the community in order to carry out their tasks, aims, and roles. The school's effort to do this is to carry out public relations, which has been positioned proportionally, formalised structurally and functionally, and realised in real terms so far. Many of them, however, have been ineffective, both in terms of management and the entire implementation process, as well as in terms of the results obtained. This study intends to discover and investigate public relations management in schools until an appropriate explanation of what needs be done to effectively performs school public relations management is discovered. This research was conducted by SMPN 8 and SMPN 16, Sukabumi, West Java, using a qualitative approach and case study method. The overall finding was that the public relations program was planned, organized, implemented, and controlled/evaluated after the process phases. However, there are still substantive things that need to be improved in each of these managerial functions, such as mapping of the public that must be reached and served, enrichment of programs and communication activities, both face-to-face and media, to reach them (planning); increasing the capacity of human resources related to understanding public relations as a whole as well as communication (organizing) skills; understanding of work procedures, communication, and motivation are required in order to carry out tasks properly and professionally (actuating); increased sensitivity in observing and objectivity in assessing the results or achievements achieved, followed by a proactive attitude in solving problems and contributing to the design of future plans. The analysis results resulted in this conclusion: 1) School public relations is a communication-based strategy initiative designed to foster positive relationships between the school and its internal and external audiences. In order to effectively generate an image, the relatively large range of services and somewhat complex versions of public relations communication activities require good and professional management; 2) Public relations management in schools is activated by fully referring to management's basic functions, which include planning, organising, implementing, and controlling/evaluating, with a special emphasis on public relations programmes aimed at gaining public acceptance, support, and trust based on a positive image of the school; 3) Schools should be concerned about a few aspects that contribute to the success of public relations management: careful planning, providing clear information to the internal and external public, directed implementation according to plan, and monitoring and evaluating results as a form of feedback.