Who's Who: Ann Cook, Sumner School District Communications

Name: Ann Cook

Age: 50

Occupation: Communications and Community Relations Director for the

What brought you to the Sumner School District? I have been with the district since 2000. Prior to that, my career was mostly in public relations and marketing/media relations. I was mainly involved with nonprofits, where you are challenged to be creative through budgeting and fundraising. Nonprofit organizations are the most passionate places to work. Employees are not paid a lot, but they are dedicated and driven by their passion. I see a lot of crossover in public education. My degree is in Comparative International Studies with a minor in history. Initially I wanted to obtain an international business degree, so I took many marketing classes. I did some post-graduate work at the university’s School of Public Affairs with a focus on public administration. This job encompasses many of my past experiences.

What are your responsibilities at the Sumner School District? I am a one-person communications office. I,

• Write, design and publish the community newsletter
• Work on common messaging (getting a message out to all district parents)
• Prepare and distribute media
• Act as the spokesperson for the district
• Participate in district event planning
• Produce and mail the Back to School calendar
• Help to maintain school board policies and updates
• And an eclectic, broad mix of other responsibilities

What has changed for you with the budget cuts? Everyone in the district has new and additional responsibilities.  The biggest change for me over the course of my time here has been the increasing use of electric media and the impact it has had on our district. When I began, our website was basic. I have built the site up to where it is now and I am continuing to work toward making it a more helpful tool for staff, parents and the community. Social media is becoming an extremely popular source of mass media. I am trying to figure out if there is a place for it in our district; if so, what would it look like and how would we use it to expand our communication? These are nice tools, but I still also work with the standard face-to-face communication, because sometimes that is the best source of communication.

What is your favorite part of your job? Going out into the schools and seeing the kids learn and the teachers teach. Watching kids learn and engage in activities reminds me of what we are here for and what is important. It puts everything into perspective.

What is your role with families? My responsibility is not just to handle media, but also to educate the community, to engage and work with them. I work with the superintendent and meet with parent/teacher and booster organizations. I provide all this information to the community and make sure families without school-aged children know what is happening in the district. Eighty percent of our community does not have children in the public schools here and they pay taxes. They deserve to know where their money is going. I partake in the Chamber and other organizations in our community so we all work well together. We have quarterly community leader meetings to talk about what is going on in our community. The crossover between our district facilities and families with non-school-aged children is positive in our area, but it brings its own sets of challenges. We need to find the best ways to use our facilities and make them affordable. With the budget, we need to limit facility rental use during the summer, but we want to make the schools available for people to see the good in the schools and not just the bad. It is tough.

So, what are the toughest challenges you feel we are facing with our district? Making sure we continue to engage our community and get them more involved.  Another one of our challenges, keeping up with technology -- both social and electronic -- is difficult to balance. The goal is to find a way to utilize it in a positive way. We also are finding it challenging to communicate state and district standards and testing procedures. This helps parents to understand expectations. Lastly, of course, are our declining resources and communicating budget issues to our community. The state has a huge deficit and it is going to affect our schools.

What is a future dream you have for your job here? I am really excited about a dream of mine that is on the horizon here. We are working on a way to integrate communication with parents in a streamlined system. Parents will be able to direct their preferred communication method based on the type of information going out. For example, how do parents want to be notified if they have a sick kid versus [how do they want to be notified of] an event at the Performing Arts Center? We are going to make this process a web-based program, accessible for the parents to update when needed.

Any personal dreams for your future? Other than the yearly personal check-in to see if I am ready to attend law school yet, I am looking forward to my husband retiring in three years. This will give us the opportunity to travel and do more of the things we love to do, like ski and visit historical places. We have a daughter in California and it would be nice to see her more. My family is the most important thing to me. It is what I am most proud of. I am looking forward to spending more time with them in the future.