Oxford School District Communication Receives Statewide Recognition

Published 10:30 am Saturday, September 29, 2018

Oxford School District’s communications team brought home several awards this past week at the Mississippi School Public Relations Association Awards of Excellence ceremony, an annual program recognizing educational public relations programs and honoring outstanding professionals in the field of school communications.

OSD competed against districts from across the state, and received several 2018 Awards of Excellence for their outstanding work in educational communications categories: academic calendar design, coordinated school health, marketing and website.

Lauren Hitchcock, webmaster and graphic designer, took home a first place award for the school’s online academic calendar, and second place awards for OSD’s Build-A-Meal design and Brag Sheet.

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Hitchcock, an Oxford High School alumni, holds a bachelor of fine arts degree with an emphasis in graphic design. She has worked for OSD since 2008 and is solely responsible for web design, coding and accessibility for eight websites within the district. She provides training and technical support to all school-level leaders for content management.

Heather Lenard, public information officer, took home a first place award for her work promoting the Summer Meals Program and a second place award for the district’s Free & Reduced Lunch Publication.

Lenard joined OSD in March of 2018. She is a Mississippi native, but moved to Oxford from Colorado Springs, Colo., where she worked in K-12 public school communications and city government. Lenard has a masters degree in communications from Mississippi College. She leads district-level programs with effective communication strategies and supports school-level communications with the media and public, a statement from OSD said.