TEMPLE, Texas — The Temple Independent School District’s Communications Department has been recognized with three Gold Star Awards and one Silver Star Award presented by the Texas School Public Relations Association (TSPRA). The winners were announced at TSPRA’s 61st annual conference Wednesday night (February 22) in Fort Worth.
This year’s Star Awards recognize work produced during the 2021-2022 school year. Temple ISD won honors in all four Star Awards categories it entered. The department, led by Chief of Communications and Community Relations Christine Parks, was honored with a Gold Star Award for its Bond 2022 website. TISD also won a Gold Star Award for its Chamber of Commerce Community Guide advertisement and the district’s TISD Leadership Definition Framework logo. Temple ISD claimed a Silver Star Award for its Choose Temple ISD human resources teacher recruitment video. TISD competed with all districts across the state of Texas with 15,000 or fewer students, meaning Temple had to compete with districts and departments that were almost twice as big as TISD.
“I am really proud of our Communications Department. From crisis communication to student celebrations and everything in between, we have consistently shared the Temple ISD story in a way that has built trust and confidence across the community,” Parks said. “In the last few years, I have often been asked to describe Temple ISD’s ‘formula’ for effective communications. It is hard to ‘formulaically’ define our process, but in the most simplistic terms, we tell our story to the primary audience in the best format at the right time. We are very deliberate about prioritizing our staff and families first when it comes to communicating messages – they need to hear from us before anyone else.”
The TSPRA Star Awards provide recognition for the outstanding education communications and projects of submitting members each year. Submissions are judged on set criteria and there are 47 main categories of competition covering various media such as newsletters, programs, posters, reports, writing, image/identity packages, photography, graphics, video, electronic presentations, campaigns, events and web sites. Judges award Gold, Silver or Bronze winners and schools are divided into three groups. There are separate competitions for districts with 15,000 students or less, 15,000-40,000 students and 40,000 or more students. This year’s winners were selected from a record-setting 1,692 entries.
“We have an outstanding Communications Department headed by Christine Parks and her team of Jon Wallin and Eric Larson,” said Dan Posey, president of the Temple ISD board of trustees. “They have advanced external and internal communications with our families and the community. Their achievements are just another example of how Temple ISD excels locally, regionally and across the state.”
The Communications Department’s Gold and Silver Star Awards will also be recognized at the TISD school board meeting on April 10th.