The Poway Unified School District is proud to announce it is the recipient of a 2024 Golden Achievement Award and two Publications & Digital Media Excellence Awards from the National School Public Relations Association!
A record number of entries were submitted across both award programs this year. NSPRA’s Golden Achievement Award recognizes outstanding, strategic work in all aspects of school public relations, communication, marketing and engagement. NSPRA’s Publications and Digital Media Excellence Awards recognize outstanding tactical materials such as publications, newsletters, videos, podcasts, websites, social media and more. Winning entries will also be recognized during the Annual Meeting and Celebration of Achievement at the NSPRA 2024 National Seminar in July, in Bellevue, Washington. Congratulations to all the winners!
2024 Golden Achievement Award: "Introducing the new powayusd.com"
In the months leading up to the 2023-24 school year, PUSD’s Communications and Technology & Innovation Departments collaborated in the transition from an old website design and content management system (CMS) to a new design and CMS for 45 school, department, and District websites. The team applied research, planning, and implementation to create updated, easy to navigate, and responsive websites to meet our audiences’ needs and address their pain points. In our final evaluation in March 2024 - we found that we met all of our planned objectives, and we can confidently conclude this website project was a success. To view the winning entry, go here.
2024 Award of Excellence: Social Media: "I am PUSD" Campaign
“I am PUSD” is a social media campaign that highlights a variety of staff and students with the intention of showing followers that it is the individual people in the Poway Unified School District (PUSD) that make PUSD so special and it is through each of our students and staff that we are achieving our vision of empowering world-class learners. The campaign has two segments - “I am Team PUSD”, highlighting staff, and “I am a World-Class Learner”, highlighting students. These highlights are posted across our social media platforms and often see much higher engagement than our typical posts. To view the winning entry, go here.
2024 Award of Merit: In-House Video: "Magic in Me" Music Video
Every year, as a tactic of PUSD’s Back to School Communications Plan, a song is selected to convey the theme for the school year. This song is used for a music video featuring students and staff to launch the new school year, with the purpose of inspiring our community and educational partners, and creating positive sentiments and mentions in social media as well as our local media partners. For 2023, the intention was to inspire individuals to find their “inner superpower” or “magic” to use in teaching and learning. To portray this, the song “Magic,” by B.O.B was chosen. The lyrics and images convey key messages of confidence, optimism, empowerment, and inclusivity. The intention was to encourage the PUSD community to use their own “magic” and spread it to their classmates and colleagues in the 2023-2024 school year. To view the winning entry, go here.
About the Poway Unified School District Communications Department
We are an award-winning school public relations team, led by Chief Communications Officer Christine Paik, APR, and Communications Specialist Brittanie Arnett. As school PR professionals, we are passionate about sharing Poway Unified's story with our community. The Poway Unified School District strives to provide ongoing information about our 41 schools, programs, and 35,000 students. All work supports our District vision and mission, and is guided by the 2021-24 Strategic Communications Plan. The Communications Department facilitates communication with internal and external audiences and builds and maintains relationships to continue the high level of community engagement throughout PUSD and our schools. We believe strong, proactive communication is the foundation for a strong public school district. Visit our PUSD Newsroom for more information.