The Newton County School System has received national recognition for publications produced during the 2011-2012 school year. The National School Public Relations Association awarded the district seven awards, including one Award of Excellence for the system's Newton College and Career Academy Recruitment Public Service Announcement. All of the awards were for publications and other marketing materials for the new, Newton College and Career Academy and the Federal Programs Department's Title I Information Campaign.
Items submitted for consideration included the NCCA Recruitment PSA, NCCA Logo, NCCA Pathways Overview, Title I Targeted Assistance PSA, Title I School Wide Program PSA, Title I Brochure and the Title I Supplemental Education Services PSA. The school district's NCCA Public Service Announcement was one of only 13 entries to win the prestigious Award of Excellence in the audio/visual portion of the national competition. There were 98 videos submitted. The district's Title I Supplemental Education Services PSA was one of only 31 video entries in the nation to receive the award of merit. The district's remaining entries - the NCCA Logo, Pathways Overview, Title I School Wide Program PSA and Title I Brochure each received Awards of Honorable Mention.
School Public Relations Departments throughout the nation were eligible to participate in the National School Public Relations Association's Awards recognition program and this year 701 entries were submitted. Publications are judged on design, skill and meeting the overall PR goals/objectives.
"Our goal is to keep our stakeholders continually informed of important information regarding our school district," said Sherri Davis-Viniard, director of public relations for Newton County Schools. "Mr. Woodard knew exactly the kind of publications he wanted for the new school so he put us in the right direction and Cynthia Marvel (retired youth apprenticeship coordinator) and I worked on the content of the Career Academy publications. And our Federal Programs Department, led by Dr. Shelia Thomas, did an outstanding job conveying the Title I information in a format that parents could easily understand. She and her staff definitely put in a lot of time and hard work. Finally, our local design company, Current Events Productions, put everything together to create the promotional campaigns for both the Career Academy and Title I. Each campaign was a great example of teamwork and everyone involved should be commended. "
