good evening i'm lou goldstein and welcome to another edition of this week in education my guest today is valley francoise who is the who is the princeton public school's new director of communications and so i'd like to first welcome valorie valerie's background communications let me just give you a quick overview of valerie over the last couple weeks prince and public schools interviewed several candidates but the district believe that we found the right person who had the right vision right values and experience to affect and we serve our schools and our students and staff in the role of communications director valerie recently most served as the division director of communications at the new jersey department of education she comes with a heart focused on doing what is right for students and celebrating the stories prior to working for the state she spent five years as the director of strategic marketing and communications for the romney school in monmouth county she has worked as senior program an introduction outreach manager for the siemens foundation which is the philanthropic arm of siemens corp for the educational testing service e t s as a program administrator and for the girl scouts usa as a senior web editor she has extensive experience in designing and launching web sites engaging stakeholders through social media and running clear and compelling text she has an m b a from the university of phoenix as well as a b a in journalism from penn state university so that new life she lives in plainsboro and is well acquainted with princeton and with her efforts in the areas of wellness equity and that which and she started with the district a couple weeks ago on august sixteenth so valerie thank you so much and you very exciting to have you here thanks i'm really excited to be here also it's good so maybe you can tell us first about because communications really is integral to the success of a school a lot of people don't think about communications as a separate entity but it really is so many different factors from the web site to social media to how you communicate with parents effectively the more the community understands communications and what's happening in a school the better they can help the students and it's really a source of pride for the community the more you know about what's happening in the school the more you can engage the more you can be part of that community and i think it's one of those things where you don't think about it right away but it but it really can kind of make or break what you're trying to do in a school that's true that's true and just for everybody out there who is wondering where this week in education has been for the last couple weeks well has been the summer months and we did take a lot of the break and we're very proud to say that we're starting our fifteenth season on the air of interviews with individuals in the school system school programs and individuals in our educational community which will be seeing in the weeks to come whether they be individuals from the university or from the general community a large or from the institute or from the school you know the universe the theological seminary will have some folks out but we're looking to focus on education and the points of education in today's society and hopefully we'll be able to bring you some information and resources so that you know exactly where to go or who to talk to and appreciate you know the show in the weeks to come so beginning going back to our discussion very maybe you can tell us a little bit about your work at the state and what were your responsibilities were there and how you find it different than working in the school community sure yeah definitely working at the state  obviously there are many new initiatives over the past couple years including some of the issues involving state testing and some of the things involving equity and standards so being able to really share that message with the community and with parents and educators in a way that they would understand was really one of the key initiatives that i wanted to understand undertake i think on social media was a very important part of my role at the say we didn't have facebook at the time and that was something that i think really opened up a lot of people's understanding of what was happening around state testing and standards  it's one of those things where you have to try to reach people where they are and then in the voice that they understand so that was something that was really important to take on ok i know you do i work with  explainable definite that was probably one of the hardest things that we did at this stage because they were so many conceptions about what that really meant but i think i realize is that we weren't really targeting educators and families in the voice that they could understand so it really isn't one size fits all with communication sometimes you have to really figure out how to reach people in the language and in the way that it can be receptive to it so i think we're able to do that by doing a couple of different things are organizing information on the website as well as getting information out directly whether it was here in newsletters or or talks to the community or even providing things to districts so they could easily under easily explain those initiatives to the families you know it seems their communications nowadays is much different than what it used to be especially with the growth you know of social media and so  maybe you could talk a little bit about that and talk about how you know years ago i want to piss off two old years ago basically you read things in a newspaper or you got a flyer in the mail and that's when you learned about things  sort of t v on radio now it seems that you can you know look at your phone and you get the latest message and it's constantly trying to keep up with the minute by minute stream and what people apparently need right now is constant you know information resourcing you're on a regular basis so what you see is the differences as far as being a communications professional in the past and currently well now it seems like you really have to understand that people are going to find information in different ways and maybe even make their own assumptions about things so the more you can provide information and be thorough upfront and be transparent and open the better it will be otherwise sometimes they may take the story and run with it based on what they may hear what they see on social media so a lot of times it's about being proactive and and understanding what it is people's perceptions are so that you can address them that i mean obviously the web is a place where people find their formation first about a school and so you wanted to really reflect the community and be able to showcase the stories of the students i know from a design perspective there's going to be some updates made to the home page and throughout but i also think it's an opportunity to really reflect what's happening in the community as opposed to just being straight information that you might find about each school it's  of who's the right person is will be having that up and it will be easier for people to know who the what the process is and who the proper people are the contact is first steps are concerned yeah you know navigation is also one of those areas  that's a big complaint you know you go to a website you don't know where to go first of all so i think navigation is going to be a key part of redesign the website and also really hearing from the parents and what it is that they're trying to find and not able to find and you know so it's not a maze that's the goal and i know a website can be great pretty only as good as the updated content that's provided from the schools so that we have individuals at the schools who will be working with you to make sure that content is updated yet thankfully we do we have a context at each of the schools who will be responsible for working with me and letting me know all the great things that are happening in the schools most of them also have twitter and some have facebook as well so we're really looking to make those connections so that is not you know so disjointed in that you can really have a better sense of what's happening a lot of times teachers are the best communicators they their own i've started to see they've posted their own news on the site and they're talking about what's happening in their classrooms getting ready for school so that's engaging and i think well times people realize that we're all communicators in a way  parents teachers and with social media that's really really the case i mean anybody who has a twitter or facebook account can communicate about the school so what are you looking forward to in this room all so many things i'm really looking forward to engaging with the families and the teachers and the students and being able to understand what it is about prince and public schools that they love so that i'm able to communicate that out i'm also really impressed with what's being done around equity here or in princeton you hear a lot about it you're starting to hear more about it at the state level and national level but people don't really know how to get started sometimes with a topic like that but what i'm finding here prince n is is way ahead of the game and really having those courageous conversations and being willing to ask the tough questions and i think that can only help the students having a better understanding of what equity is and even your own personal life what is it that you may have is your own biases and how would that translate into teaching you know having that the the courageous conversations because really i think is is what's going to help the students so that was very that we would be providing you know transparent information and how to access that information in addition to you know go to school board meetings and so i know you'll be very busy with that right now you've already started the first you can be ready we're revolving that but i just want to ask you you know what what can what can the parents and and our community look for in the weeks to come oh yeah a great question and we're definitely looking at putting more publications out to the community  flyers as well as updating our web site i think the visual element is so important if you can visualize what it is you're trying to convey whether it be you know images from the architect or what have you then people can really get a better understanding of what it is you're trying to accomplish ok and also being being engaged being sure to go to board meetings register to vote you know in the coming weeks and make your voice heard now you have a bachelor's in journalism from penn state right why did you get interested in journalism and did you see yourself as a reporter you know it was during a time i'm sure you know when i remember when i was instead i got to be a journalism and  and i think my interest came from you know watergate and the investigations that were done by bob woodward and carl bernstein and you know i did local news and you know became reported them with a to education so i just wondered what what interested you better listen well you know i always loved to write english was my favorite subject in high school and when i visited penn state way back when i was they had a school newspaper and i thought that would be great too to try and i ended up writing for the paper doing stories about the community some issues related to equity and related to some of the things that were going on in campus regarding students of different backgrounds and it happening in terms of teaching some of that equity issues that were going on in campus at the time i remember writing a story i think my first one was was martin luther king day to parade you know and  it was it was great it was definitely a good way to connect with the community and and i love the reaction of seeing articles in a newspaper and having you know fellow students talk to me about some of the issues i was writing about so it's good it's kind of carried over that's good and i know i know that you had a chance to put together the first back to school issue for on the human resources newsletter right and maybe you can tell us a little about what's in that newsletter and you know some of the important dates that may be parents and  what that's that's out there and where they can find it yeah you can definitely find it we actually have it on our home page of the website and you can find actually there are some photos of some of our new employees new staff and faculty so it's a great way to find out about some of the new staff that are on campus there is a great letter from her superintendent welcoming everyone back to the community and talking about some of the things that are happening including the the new school start time that will be happening at the commitment to equity and the referendum so i definitely would encourage everybody to take a look at that well you grew up did you grow up local your group in pennsylvania actually grew up in pennsylvania ok give us about that yeah i grew up in pennsylvania not far from lincoln university is the nation's first black college and growing up in a college town was great and you know i can definitely relate to the advantages that the other kids in princeton public schools are experiencing living so close to princeton but you know i spent a lot of time on the campus growing up hearing stories about langston hughes and you know thurgood marshall who is a lot of times the right students would go to the local high school to do their student teaching and it was something she was so proud of you know something that she always talked about and so that was another you know example of really understanding how a community you know can come together through education and you know it's really not just the k through twelve experience it's you know it's the surrounding community as well so if you have an hour trying to live in a college sure that he was a good teacher you know i'm sure it was a good good role model and speaking of role models one of the things i like to ask oh my guess is you know you have a role model that you that you can share with us and you know who that was and who made impact you know in your life growing up sure i have to say my parents you know they've lived in pennsylvania all their lives they were college or high school sweethearts and you know we married about fifty four years so just saying the  the the work ethic and the dedication to family and and their occasion to their community is something that i've always admired and so you know i want to be like them you know when i grow up and you know  look back and have that family support and seeing all of their children and grandchildren have a chance to go to college it's a wonderful thing so you have got your child where they right now although my daughter actually just made her into penn state your journey and the roles that you've had are there some positions that challenged you more than others and you have those those positions that you that attracted you more than others because like i said the wide variety you know you draw scouts usa work with us you do with really school you work at the state yeah you're talking private public government so all different types of roles i mean there's actually were challenges and its role but i think the common theme for me was education and find a way to connect with students and it's real that i had i think that's something to in this role where you know when things make it tough for overwhelming you know you want to make sure your focus on the students and i think that's something i've definitely seen here already it's motivating you know it's inspiring to be able to make that connection and i've been able to do that throughout my career and you know even though i've worked in different places that's always been kind of the the center communications and i'm sure you face that in in the various you know jobs that you felt so when you hear there should be working vacation or is not enough what do you think when you hear that well it's funny because it's almost like well where do you start with that because you know everybody has and of role in it and it's something that people do feel very passionate about you know when it comes to the website or social media or or really sometimes it comes out of frustration of not being able to just get basic information so you kind of have to get to the heart of it and find out what suggestions they have and what they think could improve because it really doesn't necessarily fall in just one person or one team you know it's something that is a group effort i feel and you know understanding what the first ratios are sometimes sometimes people just want to hear that you're listening and that you're you know willing to try and do something about it so  what's the what is the role so everybody understands through the communications director as it relates to your members of the media the local media who are looking to you know for stories regular basis i mean i think it has to do with keeping reporters informed about what's happening in the schools a lot of times it could be feeding information that they may not necessarily know it may be  stories about what's happening with the teachers with the students that they may not necessarily hear about it's being in front of stories sometimes of explaining things that they may not understand it's about being proactive i think an understanding that the local news really should be a reflection of what's going on in the schools and you want to be accurate so i think a lot of it is about being proactive and being open and being willing to answer the questions that they have because always you know they're very interesting in some of the editions they come out and the students and i guess one of the questions i want to ask you if a student was you watch and i was thinking about the role of journalism or want to you know passion for writing but also think about what subject areas you're interested in i would say you know addition to having the technical skills also have a subject area that you're really interested in whether it's sports anytime you can get the exposure whether it's your school newspaper or local paper or even if you want to do to a pod casts or something like that on your own the more practice you get the better and i would say just keep pursuing your dream and and definitely try to get interactions wherever possible sometimes will be paid sometimes not but the experience is what is what's important to try and build your portfolio of anybody wants to volunteer i'm sure they can they can email you  for communications in our district going forward by deftly wanted to be a two way communication i think transparency is key i think the more we can we can share the stories of what's happening the better the communications will be and i want to be able to hear from parents hear from teachers and students don't be shy definitely contact me if you want to get something featured or if you just want to make sure that we're all informed about what's going on both internal and external communications is something that i think is important so you know even within our community it has a public schools and one who the communication is well so ok well it's always a challenge yes and i think you'll be up for the challenge and we're very fortunate to have you think you are doing the district that we congratulate you look forward to a lot of good things in the weeks months and years to come thank you looking forward to it well  that was valerie francoise she's new communications director for the princeton public schools joining us today and if you have any items of interest that you want to share with valerie for publication that are promoting whether you be or parents or any member of the community or students your priest please contact valerie she's in the valley road ministration building and you can e mail her and if there's ideas that you have to discuss with her please just do so because she she while for community members who have some good ideas for her but the interim thank you valley once again for coming on thank you and look forward to seeing you being on the side of the desk in the weeks to come in interviewing guests and talking about educational matters  throughout the princeton community and you're welcome so till that time i'm a go stain thank you for watching this week in education and we'll see you next week so until then have a good night stay healthy stay focused and we'll see you next week another edition of this week an education