Libertyville Dist. 70 wins state communication awards
Libertyville School District 70 walked away with three state communication awards for its website, an important safety podcast, and a feature story on a teacher's after-school dance club.
More than 150 entries were submitted to the Illinois Chapter of the National School Public Relations Association's annual Communication Contest for a variety of categories including website, audio-video and writing. Entries were judged against criteria of excellence, and only those receiving top scores in a variety of areas received awards. NSPRA chapter members from Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Indiana, Wisconsin, Ohio and Nebraska judged the awards.
INSPRA honored District 70 Supt. Dr. Guy Schumacher and Technology Support Associate Art Hughes with an Award of Merit for the major transformation made to the school district's websites this year. Web designer Hughes worked with Dr. Schumacher to create a more visual site that was easy to use with an interactive dashboard. The website breaks down into a major D70 website, then also includes websites for each of the five schools. In a recent survey, D70 parents said the websites are the main locations for where they collect their news on the schools.
INSPRA also honored Supt. Schumacher and Technology Literacy Coach Jill Przyblyski with an Award of Merit for an informative and calming podcast on School Safety created just days after the Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy. Judges determined the podcast provided transparency on school safety protocol, explained how the district is working together with law enforcement, how staff is trained for emergencies and crisis, and what changes will be made to improve on safety throughout the schools. (The podcast can be found at http://www.d70schools.org/~gschumacher/drschumacherpodcast/Podcast/Entries/2012/12/17_Community_Cares.html )
Also, INSPRA honored Robin Smith Kollman, the district's Public Relations Facilitator, with one of only three Awards of Excellence in Writing that were offered this year. Kollman wrote a story about teacher Angela Pontarelli's overwhelming popular dance club at Adler Park School. The first-year teacher, who also studied dance in college, offered the after-school program that attracted 60 students immediately and had to be quickly expanded. She offers it twice a year now and caters to both boys and girls.
The story appeared in the District 70 Views newsletter, and also was distributed as a news release where the Daily Herald picked it up in its entirety.
“The contest recognizes the amazing communications work done by our members, “ said INSPRA President Mary Todoric.