A recent editorial in the PJStar Forum, which spoke to how wonderful the March 18, Trewyn Middle School Fine Arts Night was, got me to thinking about how you seldom ever hear good news reports about what is going on in our schools.
Unfortunately D150 missed another opportunity to illustrate the "good things" that we keep hearing about happening in the schools. This was an opportunity for free advertising. A simple p.r. effort to showcase a school that is constantly reported on as being "troubled", would have been worth the time for Trewyn's image. I think the media would be interested in showing the positive side of schools, but first somebody has to notify them.
These special events at schools are a chance to sell the District to citizens. The editorial, by Jim Bateman of Community Builders, described the event like this:
Unfortunately D150 missed another opportunity to illustrate the "good things" that we keep hearing about happening in the schools. This was an opportunity for free advertising. A simple p.r. effort to showcase a school that is constantly reported on as being "troubled", would have been worth the time for Trewyn's image. I think the media would be interested in showing the positive side of schools, but first somebody has to notify them.
These special events at schools are a chance to sell the District to citizens. The editorial, by Jim Bateman of Community Builders, described the event like this:
"Trewyn's Fine Arts Night was the culmination of a nine-week after-school and Saturday-morning pilot arts program sponsored by a grant received by Community Builders Foundation from the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency, and the Community Foundation of Illinois. Thanks to the outreach of ArtsPartners, the students were led in their endeavors by Susie Somerville Brown and Matthew Garrett, both excellent artists, who willingly volunteered their time and talents to bring the arts to students at Trewyn.
The amazing thing is that the whole thing was done on a small budget - just money for supplies. The unpaid volunteers were all professionals in either art or theater. They loved working with the students, and it showed."
The fine art exhibit was a wonderful example of collaboration between the school and community volunteers. This is the type of community involvement that is going to make the difference in D150 - we need to shine a light on it whenever possible.
6 comments:
Great post - and very timely. Now that Stacey Shangraw is your bud, maybe you can influence her to emphasize situations like these :)
Yeah, me and Stacey - real tight... Thanks :)
Amazingly enough (for those who think I want only bad things about Trewyn reported), I agree. Since all schools have a Fine Arts night (I think), it should probably be up to the school personnel to advertize the events at their own schools. I know that the West Peoria News (of course, we only publish every other month) always asks Calvin Coolidge to provide us with any important news so that we can publish it. Of course, I think 150 will have to find some other media besides the PJS to carry news of upcoming events, etc.--it seems to be cutting to the bare bones.
Absolutely. Plus, I think the District PR team should encourage the PJS to report on 150 students doing exceptional and feature them more prominently in the PJS (beside just those in athletics).
This past summer a young lady that was in my daughter's class at 150 is apparently a very accomplished violinist and travels around the country playing with various youth groups. Featuring successful District 150 students would make families in the processing of opting in (or out?) of the District to pause and think, well . . . maybe the District does have something to offer. Instead the article was a tiny little thing stuck in a corner, no picture.
Also, the PJS doesn't regularly cover the results of speech events. I know that at least two if not more speech events from Richwoods made it to state. Mahliyah was in one of those events, but there was nothing in the paper about it. I think it's a big deal just to go to state. One Manual student, also, made it to state. I saw to it that the story is in the April issue of the West Peoria News, but it didn't make it into the PJS.
Good for you Sharon. I always try to show my kids articles in the paper and other publications about students working hard and succeeding in lots of areas. It is motivating.
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