Superintendent Doug White told the Old Rochester Regional School Committee on September 13 that the school district did things a little bit differently for teachers and staff on opening day this year.
Aside from meeting in the auditorium instead of the cafeteria, White unveiled the school district’s new initiative: branding ORR.
Each staff member was given a T-shirt with the logo of their respective school featured on the front and the hashtag #WEareOR on the back – We are Old Rochester.
All staff members from all schools also signed a large red and white banner with the school district’s new hashtag #WEareOR, which will travel around the three towns to all the schools for display.
White said the message to staff was this: What does it mean to be Old Rochester?
“I really challenged the staff to really think about what that means,” said White. He asked, what is it to brand our selves? With words, designs, logos, slogans – being consistent, keeping the messaged focused, maintaining a presence, and building those logos.
Speaking of logos, ORR High School Principal Mike Devoll said that ORR would be unveiling its new bulldog logo during Homecoming, so stay tuned…
White said the branding of Old Rochester is a tool to engage the community and tell the story of Old Rochester, by Old Rochester.
“We need to get our story out there, because if we don’t tell our story, someone will tell it for us,” White said. “We need a way to engage our stakeholders in a two-way communication over and above what we’ve currently been doing … and make sure that everybody in our community knows the efforts in our schools and that they support our efforts….”
“We want to ensure that our voices are the ones telling our story. We can’t let anyone else tell our story for us,” said White.
The next meeting of the Old Rochester regional School Committee is scheduled for October 25 at 6:30 pm in the ORRJHS media room.
Old Rochester Regional School Committee
By Jean Perry