PRPS teacher earns BRAVO! Award for rebranding work

Posted on October 26, 2023 by Ryan Dahlman

By Samantha Johnson
Commentator/Courier
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Between the September and October meetings of the board for Prairie Rose Public Schools, two staff members received awards, including director of communications Angela Baron.

The award will be presented to her during the national conference of the Canadian Association of Communicators in Education, which takes place near the end of October.

“She (Baron) has received a BRAVO! Award for the work on revamping all the school’s logos and marketing pieces. That was a massive undertaking in a very short amount of time,” superintendent Reagan Weeks told the board at the Oct. 12 meeting.

Baron explained that each year the association puts out a call for award applications. Those who have completed communication projects that they believe could be deserving of an award are encouraged to apply.

“This year, in the summer, we did this really cool project with all the schools,” said Baron. “We rebranded all the schools. I took that project and did a write-up on all the things we did, why we did it, what were some of the results we saw with the changes. That goes to a number of judges, and they evaluate it. I got an email saying our project won and I will find out at the end of October what category of award it is.”

The project was around providing consistency in the overall brand of PRPS. Prior to undertaking this project, many of the schools were using different fonts and formats.

“Your first impression, if you are a parent, is where is the consistency when you have things going all over the place. It doesn’t set the stage with what you want to represent yourself as when you have this many students. Eagle Butte was the last one we got done at the end of June and it took us about 18 months to get through them all.”

PRPS contracted with the design company Flight Five, which worked with all the schools to complete the graphic design aspects of the project.

“I feel good,” stated Baron. “I haven’t submitted anything for years. It’s always so busy and it’s work to make a submission. You have to outline the criteria and show how you evaluated it. There are lots of pieces of evaluation, so it’s not something you do lightly.”

Jocelyn Encinas, a teacher at Ralston school, is the second award winner within PRPS. She is one of the 2023 recipients of the Prime Minister’s Award for Teaching Excellence. Only 50 teachers across Canada receive this award each year. 

Look for an interview with Encinas in an upcoming edition of the Commentator.