Henrico County Public Schools wins 3 awards

Three Henrico County Public Schools initiatives have been recognized by the regional chapter of the National School Public Relations Association.

The group’s Chesapeake Chapter honored the projects in its annual communications contest, and announced the winners at its fall conference in Richmond Nov. 2.

The awards recognize outstanding communications projects produced by school divisions and local schools in Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia and the District of Columbia.

• The “Heart of Henrico” initiative, which highlights the extraordinary work of HCPS employees, won top honors in the category of special campaigns. Recipients are selected from online nominations and the Department of Communications and Public Relations creates a short video to showcase each honoree. A video at http://youtu.be/8GgtHK--v3Y explains what the award is and why it was created. You can see past recipients and nominate someone at heartofhenrico.henricoschools.us.

• Communications in support of HCPS’ “CTE National Letter-of-Intent Signing Day” won second place in the region for a campaign for a special event. The event, held in April by HCPS’ Department of Career and Technical Education, had high school seniors gather with future employers in front of families and the media to sign employment letters-of-intent. The event was similar to those commonly held by schools for athletes signing with NCAA sports programs. The signing day drew national media attention. An HCPS Facebook post and photos about the signing day drew 36,000 likes, was shared more than 25,000 times and generated more than 3,400 comments.

• “The Binder,” Henrico Schools’ e-newsletter, won an honorable mention among regional web publications and e-newsletters. The publication is emailed to HCPS families and staff members about every two weeks, and includes news, reminders and important dates.