Seattle Schools Hires a New Communications Chief

Jacque (pronounced “Jackie”) Coe will be recommended for school board approval on April 1, as the Chief Communications Officer for Seattle Public Schools (SPS). She currently is the Senior Director of Strategic Communications for the Washington Dairy Products Commission and is nationally accredited in public relations (APR) by the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA). Prior to joining the commission, Jacque served as the Director of Communications and Community Relations for the Bellevue School District.

While working for the Bellevue School District, Jacque’s responsibilities included internal and external communications as well as community engagement initiatives including strategic initiatives, policy, public affairs, community engagement, and outreach to diverse audiences. During her tenure with the district, she re-organized Communications staff for strategic focus and enhanced customer service, redesigned the web site for easier navigation, created a district advisory committee process for greater public engagement and led team efforts in strategic planning initiatives and policy efforts. 

“I am very excited about Jacque joining our cabinet and leadership team,” said Superintendent Larry Nyland. “She brings more than 20 years of experience in strategic communications, including serving on three executive teams related to K-12 education; the Bellevue School District, Alliance for Education and Washington’s Lottery, which benefits education.”

Jacque will transition into the role on Monday, April 6.

Comments

Anonymous said…
All good until the last sentence. Alliance for Education?
No thank you.
Hope the woman can overcome the resume flaw and further hope the woman is not a backdoor for the Alliance into the district executive team. It's how the Alliance has worked in the past so this is not paranoia.

DistrictWatcher
DW, my thought exactly.
Anonymous said…
I know Jacque as a hard working and tireless volunteer in schools. She is also an SPS parent and knows exactly what is what with this district. Her professional experience is strong. Yes, she may have some Alliance experience but what I know of her is that she will use that experience to do her job well and advocate for what is right for kids, buildings and families. She is seasoned and political in all the right ways and she will be vocal (and take a lot of flack for it). This is really a good hire for SPS and frankly I'm surprised they got her. Today, perhaps I am just a little bit less...

-SPS Tired
Eric B said…
I have to second what SPS Tired said. I've worked with Jacque in the past, and I'm looking forward to seeing what she brings to the table.
Anonymous said…
What! another $110K plus benefits for JSCEE. Will the madness ever end.

pony baloney
Ekinnaj Jay said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
Ekinnaj Jay said…
I keep coming back to the same thing, namely that as a special education teacher in the district I have been told that due to the freezing of SPED funds to the district, there are several SPED programs that have NO MATERIALS WHATSOEVER for their students this year, just empty space and students looking at their panicked teacher. Yet we can hire more dead wood at the central office. Where is the priority here?????

Upset teacher
Anonymous said…
This is a job the existing staff can perform. If you're broadcasting facts and transparency, you don't need spin. It takes a professional to CYA, to handle the minutia down to which words are even allowed in SPS communications.

Westside
Anonymous said…
"While working for the Bellevue School District, Jacque’s responsibilities included internal and external communications as well as community engagement initiatives including strategic initiatives, policy, public affairs, community engagement, and outreach to diverse audiences. During her tenure with the district, she re-organized Communications staff for strategic focus and enhanced customer service, redesigned the web site for easier navigation, created a district advisory committee process for greater public engagement and led team efforts in strategic planning initiatives and policy efforts."

If she is allowed to drive any of these efforts successfully in SPS, kids, families, and buildings win.

Fact is, even with transparency and facts, communications can still go horribly wrong. SPS has neither facts nor transparency and we've seen lack of communication and poor communication. My hope is that she'll use her smarts as she's done in the past, to ensure that communication is backed up by substance.
-SPS Tired
Anonymous said…
If she understands things like how to actually gather information, rather than English only online survey monkeys and the silly debacle a couple years ago over boundary changes where it was all process by email, and of course the schools with heavy non-English speakers didn't send in anything, so their boundaries were horrible - remember that? In Betty Patu's region? At least she got it and put somewhat of a hold on it.

Well, if the new hire can change that type of thinking about what is "engagement" and replace it with something actual - then I'm all for it.


Being an SPS parent is a HUGE step, by the way, b/c it seems like too many people in JSCEE are not connected to facts on the ground.

Signed: hoping
Anonymous said…
Jsnnike, do you have a list of schools, or any schools that do not have materials. I know McClure had none for several years for its self-contained SM2 class. Nothing. Zero. RBHS also had 0 for its SM4 class. Anyway, it would be good to know if that was still the case.

Sped Parent
Anonymous said…
Did she write his memo on the SBAC that he sent to staff?
-notagoodmove
Anonymous said…
Well, I know Jacque (pronounced “Jackie”) Coe, but only very casually. When I first met her, she was working for the Washington State Lottery. She's a nice enough person, but I was greatly disappointed when she testified last night at the hearing on the proposed Loyal Heights Elementary School building renovation and expansion.

The arbitrary plans being imposed on the students, parents, teachers, administration and surrounding community for the future of Loyal Heights Elementary School are awful. They effectively turn what has been a model community school that functions very well---where almost every family knows each other and there is a strong spirit of cooperation---into an Urban Education Compound that SQUEEZES as many children as possible into an exceedingly small space, and hides a pro-privatization agenda within its construction blueprints.

Here's where Jacque Coe comes in: She was the ONE and ONLY parent or neighborhood resident testyfying at last night's hearing in favor of these horrendous plans for LHES. While she glowingly and effusively praised thse plans, she never bothered to disclose that she was also the Chief Communications Officer for SPS!

I was happy that another speaker, some time later, pointed out this fact. But I was outraged that she didn't exercise her ethical obligation to point out that very relevant fact.

That, and her history with the truly opprobrious "Alliance for Education," has brought me to the conclusion that she can't be trusted and is pushing an agenda that is pro-privatization, anti-teacher and anti-parent.

Concerned Public School Parent---who wasn't born yesterday after falling off of the turnip truck...

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