Bloomfield Hills Schools Names New Communications Director

The has named Shira Good its director of communications and community relations after a three-month search.

Good is the communications supervisor with the , and will officially start in Bloomfield Hills on Feb. 1. Members of the Bloomfield Hills Board of Education unanimously approved her hire last week.

She replaces , who had the position for five years before leaving for a new position with the University of Michigan in October. , who recently retired after a 31-year career with the Oakland Schools, was hired as an interim director and will continue working through the end of the month.

Superintendent Rob Glass and the board thanked Brown for service and for guiding them toward Good, who has a strong background in electronic communications.

“That includes television, websites, social media and I think that’s going to be a real asset going forward,” Glass said. In addition to handling internal and external communications for the district and coordinating media coverage requests, she will spearhead marketing initiatives to keep the district competitive.

Good was chosen after a four-tier selection process that whittled down a field of at least 150 applicants, Glass said.

He also noted that Good, who grew up in Huntington Woods, completed her degree at Boston's Emerson College in less than three years and served as an intern on the hit TV show The West Wing.

In an email Tuesday to Berkley Patch, Berkley Schools Superintendent Michael Simeck said Good made a number of valuable contributions since she joined the district in December 2008, including:

• Clarifying and implementing the "Berkley brand," which meant revamping the district's website, as well as creating and implementing standards for the district's publications. 
• Establishing productive relationships with local media outlets. 
• Formatting the Board of Education's homework for the Federal Relations Network (the annual school board conference Berkley attends in Washington, DC). "These homework assignment products have become blueprints for school boards nationally," Simeck wrote.

"She is full of ideas and incredibly positive," Simeck said. "Shira's glass is half full. She is flexible, fun, passionate about her work, and amazingly resilient."

That trait may come in hany right away, as the district is in the midst of informing voters about the pending bond request needed to merge and high schools . Similar bond requests were rejected by voters in 2007 and 2010. Final decisions on the bond amount and when it will appear on the ballot are expected at the Feb. 16 board meeting.

"Bloomfield has a large challenge ahead and the merger of the two high schools onto one campus has always interested me," Good wrote in an email to Berkley Patch. "When my colleague in Bloomfield announced she was leaving for a position with the University of Michigan, I decided to apply for the position. Sometimes an open door presents itself and you just know in your gut that you have to try to walk through it."

The Berkley School District has posted the open position on its website.