DMPS Earns National Honors for Communications Efforts
Des Moines Public Schools has earned recognition for its communications efforts in several categories from the National School Public Relations Association. DMPS received a district-record ten awards in NSPRA’s annual Publications and Electronic Media Awards competition and, for the first time ever, earned three Awards of Excellence, the highest honor awarded in any category.
The district earned the top honor in the Brand/Image category, for the new DMPS Brand and Graphic Guidelines; in the Finance category, for the district’s newly formatted budget publication; and in the Video category for a report by DMPS-TV on North High School’s Bears Den.
NSPRA also presented Des Moines Public Schools with three Awards of Merit for the school district’s billboard campaign, social media program, and a DMPS-TV story on milk carton recycling. The district also received four Honorable Mentions for a guest editorial on the new alternative teacher contract, our DMPS Community Report newsletter, a brochure on middle school mathematics, and a DMPS-TV story on a visit by Lolo Jones to Findley Elementary School.
“With more than 32,000 student, 5,000 employees and 60 schools, a top priority is to always make news and information about DMPS readily available to the public in a variety of formats, and it’s an honor to nationally recognized for our effort,” said Phil Roeder, director of communications and public affairs for Des Moines Public Schools. “We have a great team at DMPS working on our communications efforts who are always dedicated to making sure we do better in the future than we’ve done in the past.”
The following is a list of the awards earned in various categories by DMPS (with links to those items available online):
AWARD OF EXCELLENCE
- Branding/Image Package: DMPS Brand and Graphics Guidelines
- Finance Publication: 2013-2014 Adopted Budget and Finanical Statements
- Video: North Bears’ Den report by DMPS-TV
AWARD OF MERIT
- Marketing Materials (Electronic): DMPS Billboard Campaign
- Social Media: Integrated use of the district’s multiple social media sites: facebook.com/DMschools, twitter.com/DMschools, pinterest.com/dmschools, flickr.com/dmps, youtube.com/dmpstv
- Video: Milk Carton Recycling report by DMPS-TV
HONORABLE MENTION
- Excellence in Writing: “New Teacher Contract Supports Profession, Students, Taxpayers” (newspaper editorial published August 28, 2013 in the Des Moines Register)
- Print Newsletter: DMPS Community Report, the district’s every-other-month newsletter
- Special Purpose Publication: Middle School Mathematics Program
- Video: A Lulu Named Lolo report by DMPS-TV
NSPRA is a professional organization dedicated to building support and trust for education through responsible public relations that leads to success for all students. For more information about the organization, including a complete list of award winners from across the country, visit www.nspra.org.
