The Sacramento County Board of Education honored the SCOE Communications Office at its June 28 meeting for earning two statewide communications awards.
In May, SCOE won an award in the "Special Program or Event" category for "Teacher Recognition at NBA Game." The annual Teachers of the Year recognition program is presented in partnership with Maloof Sports and Entertainment, NECA-IBEW, and the Sacramento Scottish Rite Bodies of Freemasonry. Because of this partnership, Sacramento County Teachers of the Year are recognized during halftime at a Sacramento Kings NBA game.
SCOE also received a 2006 CalSPRA (California School Public Relations Association) Award of Excellence for its newly revamped website. Over the past year, the visual design of the SCOE website was redone, the layout transitioned from table-based to a modern CSS-based design, and new features were added including an RSS feed (allowing visitors to subscribe and be notified automatically when new content is added), video clips accompanying key news stories, and frequent photo galleries of SCOE events. Alongside these improvements, there has been a significant increase in the amount of new and updated information posted. The site has had nearly 180,000 visits so far this year.
The SCOE Communications Office provides communication services to support the Sacramento County Office of Education's programs and services. It assists school districts in Sacramento County with strategic communications and media outreach and serves as a key disseminator of information to educators and community leaders county-wide.
The SCOE Communications Office consists of the following: Tim Herrera, Communications Director; Cathy Sapunor, Special Events Coordinator; Beth Flory, Program Analyst; and John Woodward, Web Developer.
CalSPRA annually recognizes outstanding achievement in communication and public relations for K-16 educational professionals and institutions throughout the state. Entries were judged this year by NSPRA (National School Public Relations Association) members from New York.