Public Relations Committee Chair
North Clackamas Chapter 71
Hello, OSEA members! I am the chair of the statewide Public Relations Committee, a role I have been honored to hold for many years. Our committee is made up of members from across the state who work throughout the year on boosting recognition for the members of OSEA. We are lucky to be tasked with a particularly fun responsibility – choosing OSEA’s theme for Classified School Employees Week (CEW) from member submissions. Each year I am blown away by your creativity!
This year, the committee chose "Paving Pathways to Student Success,” submitted by Anya Janik of Beaverton Chapter 48. Thank you, Anya, for your submission! (And just a small pitch: we love so many themes each year but we can only pick one. If your theme wasn’t selected, don’t hesitate to submit it again next year!)
Our communications team has created a bunch of materials for chapters and schools to use to celebrate CEW and I wanted to share some of the Public Relations Committee’s ideas to incorporate this year’s theme:
- We’ve got paper bricks in red, yellow and blue with space to add employee names. Use those to build a pathway or the shape of your school on a bulletin board!
- You can also decorate your bulletin board, classroom, office, etc. with our signs and banners. There are diamond construction sign banners spelling out “classified” and “OSEA,” a large “classified educators at work” sign, and a CEW poster. Add a few photos of the amazing classified employees in your school for a truly celebratory display.
3. Cellophane bags filled with candy are a fun, affordable treat and you can easily connect them to the CEW theme! We have candy wraps designed for Hershey’s Nuggets (instructions are included). You can also find chocolate bricks or candy bricks. A bag tag makes the perfect finishing touch!
4. Get lots of pictures of your members! We even have fun photo props: an OSEA hard hat, a safety cone, a shovel and a “caution” sign about classified excellence!
5. If you want to go beyond our branded offerings, the dollar store is your friend! You could get little buckets for treats with sand shovels, construction vests, toy bricks... the only limit is your imagination and the dollar store shelves!
Don’t forget: CEW is our time to celebrate and be celebrated for the hard work we do all year long! This appreciation week is in Oregon law – March 2-6 is CEW all around the state!
Have fun, and don’t forget to share photos of your CEW celebrations with OSEA!