Ascension Public Schools snags national honor for communications – www.brproud.com

BATON ROUGE, La. (LOCAL 33) (FOX 44) - Ascension Public Schools has received a national honor for its 2016 bond election communication campaign and is the only Louisiana recipient of this honor.

The National School Public Relations Association (NSPRA) bestowed Ascension Public Schools with its highest honor, the Gold Medallion Award, at its national conference this year on July 12. Ascensions "Growing at the Pace of Excellence" campaign garnered it the distinction of being one of 11 school districts across the country to grab the NSPRAs highest honor this year.

"We consider it an honor and a blessing when our work and efforts to serve children receive national recognition. This particular award appropriately affirms the hard work and effort of all those involved in effective communication so that our public would properly understand and agree with our priority for capital improvement projects that includes building new schools," said Ascension Public Schools Superintendent David Alexander.

Alexander also sent out a special congratulations to Jackie Tisdell, who leads all public communication efforts, and Assistant Superintendent Denise Graves, who was serving as Superintendent during this successful campaign.

Once again, hats off to our #AscensionStrong community, who pursue excellence in serving students!"

On April 9 in 2016, 80 percent of Ascension Parish residents voted in favor to extend a 15.08 millage to generate $120 million in bonds to fund four new schools and facility improvements district-wide.

This was the culmination of a comprehensive communications plan executed by the district's public information office in consultation with Taylor Media Services. The campaign utilized many different learning and outreach resources to be able to successfully campaign to the community.

"This campaign was successful because we were all in, from the superintendent, board members and directors to principals, teachers and support staff. Our community trusts that we are good stewards of their financial investments, and they showed that support at the polls," said Assistant Superintendent A. Denise Graves.

The school district has worked with Taylor Media Services since 2003 including the successful passage of multiple elections. This was the first election marketing campaign under Public Information Officer Jackie Tisdell, who joined the district in 2015.

"As a parent and Ascension Parish resident, I have always voted to support our schools. This was the first time I worked on an election campaign and am grateful for the support of Taylor Media Services, as well as the hard work by Director of Planning and Construction Chad Lynch and our entire staff," said Tisdell. "Although tremendously humbled by this recognition, we know our work is far from over. We will focus our communication efforts on the construction progress of new schools and renovations."

Information about Ascension's 2016 bond election marketing campaign can be found at http://www.apsb.org/2016bond.

The Gold Medallion is NSPRA's top program award, recognizing superior educational public relations programs.

For more information about NSPRA, visit http://www.nspra.org.

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