Kent communications team outlines '1 KSD' campaign, wins national awards and expands translation access

Kent School District communications staff presented a summary of this year’s public‑affairs work to the school board, highlighting a districtwide unity campaign called “1 KSD,” three national awards, steps to expand language access and the rollout of a unified communications platform.

The presentation matters because the communications team said its work directly supports family engagement, emergency communications and equity goals that affect roughly 25,000 students and their families across the district.

Faith Sisley, director of communications and public affairs, said the 1 KSD campaign is intended to “celebrate unity and the diversity in our great district” and to “bring together students, staff, families and community members with a shared focus on student growth and success.” She described an art contest that drew more than 400 entries and said the communications team — a small group of five — visited 41 of the district’s 44 schools to build relationships.

Sisley briefed the board on several operational changes. The district hired a language‑access specialist and, the communications team said, added eight new interpreters using a new screening and online training pipeline. Staff said they negotiated a district purchase of a handheld translation device (referred to as a “Vasco” device in the presentation) and reported a negotiated per‑device discount and aggregate savings; the communications team plans a strategic summer pilot at secondary schools before a wider rollout. The district also deployed a unified communications platform (presented as “Thrillshare”) to consolidate email, voicemail, website and social posts and to enable newsletter translation.

The communications office announced three awards from the National School Public Relations Association: an Award of Excellence for the district’s Connected magazine, an Award of Excellence for a district “1 community” video, and an Award of Merit for the district website. Arnold, the district’s multimedia specialist, played the district’s award‑winning video during the session.

Board members asked questions about how the district will manage translated messages during emergencies and how caregiver contacts are pulled into the system. Staff said messages during a lockdown are pulled from the district’s contact database (Cumulative) and explained how families and ongoing caregivers should be added to that contact system so they will receive texts and calls during an event.

No formal board action was taken; the session was a staff presentation and question period. District communications staff asked board members to continue supporting the work on language access, web accessibility and a single, unified platform for school and district messaging.