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Sports Information in a public school district

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by NDub, May 20, 2009.

  1. Shifty Squid

    Shifty Squid Member

    Check out these guys, NDub: http://www.dekalb.k12.ga.us/instruction/athletics/contact.html

    It's DeKalb County schools in Atlanta. They actually have their own sports information department. If you look along the right sidebar, you can see links to schedules, statistics, news and sports-specific pages. They put out media guides for each of their sports and mail them out to the media (some more timely than others) each season. The stats are actually pretty decently updated, typically, and the people are pretty helpful. It's the only such operation I've run into, and it works fairly well.

    If you're going to dive into something like this, it might not even be a bad idea to talk to Ron Sebree, whose contact info is on the page I linked. He's a good guy and could probably be helpful in just giving you an idea of how to lay the groundwork. I'm sure there are other operations like this around, but this is one I'm aware of.

    Good luck, NDub.
     
  2. Mark2010

    Mark2010 Active Member

    Oh, it's not like they aren't spending money on lesser bullshit.
     
  3. 93Devil

    93Devil Well-Known Member

    My school district, 24,000 students, does not even have a central office person for athletics. It just falls into the side duties of another director.

    The district's public information officer does not even have a cell phone. Some districts get it. Some don't.

    I think Moddy's new business is looking into this, but with school districts laying off teachers, they are not about to add budget lines.
     
  4. Paper Guy

    Paper Guy Member

    Exactly. I can understand that for a small district, but for the big ones, paying one or two people 35-40k a year to do this would only be a drop in the budget bucket.
     
  5. 93Devil

    93Devil Well-Known Member

    Outside of coaches, 90% of school employees could give two shits about athletics.

    When you go to a game, try to find teachers that want to be there rather than having to be there for a duty.
     
  6. Barsuk

    Barsuk Active Member

    I can also vouch for Ron Sebree being a good guy. Very nice, very accommodating, in my experience with him.
     
  7. PCLoadLetter

    PCLoadLetter Well-Known Member

    Honestly, guys, if you think paying $35 - $40k a year each for a couple of people to do sports information in a school district right now is a drop in the bucket, you need to read the news section a little more often.

    There are districts in my neck of the woods that sent out notices to literally thousands of teachers last month, letting them know they may not have jobs in the fall. They are preparing for 40% budget cuts.

    How many teachers do you think they should lose so a reporter has an easier time getting football stats?

    How about this -- your newspaper can pay for the position. For a big media company that should be no problem, right?
     
  8. Armchair_QB

    Armchair_QB Well-Known Member

    There is no excuse for a major metropolitan school district not to have a top flight PR/Communications department.

    The function of that department should be to promote what is good about that district and assist media that covers it. This should include media covering athletics as well as media covering other aspects of the district.

    That is the only way an "SID" can be justified. The role could be part of a larger job description that would include promoting all extracurricular activities.

    And let's face it, the average big city school district is bloated with dead weight administrators that do very little other than pick up a check. A properly-run district eliminates those people and replaces them with admins who actually work.
     
  9. playthrough

    playthrough Moderator Staff Member

    Agree with making it an all-inclusive gig. If I'm a higher-up in the district I'd laugh an SID idea out of the room. But someone who can promote the stud violinist just as breathlessly as the blue-chip quarterback would be pretty unique.
     
  10. Armchair_QB

    Armchair_QB Well-Known Member

    Absolutely.

    There is no excuse for district the size of, for example, Dallas not to have a professionally-run PR department that deals with media covering the education side and the extracurricular side.

    A major metropolitan district shouldn't have a website that looks like it was designed by vandals.
     
  11. novelist_wannabe

    novelist_wannabe Well-Known Member

    I can't believe a school district would sign on for this. If the one I live in did, I wouldn't be too happy about it, particularly since they don't provide any support for any sport other than football. Everybody else has to pay to play. Put me in the non-starter camp.
     
  12. dargan

    dargan Active Member

    Aren't these called public information officers?

    They've got 'em out here in the sticks. Figured they'd have 'em in the Metroplex.
     
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