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Where are They Now? Catch up with four TSPRA past presidents.
WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
by Tracie Seed TSPRA Communications & Marketing Manager
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For 60 years, officially in 2022, TSPRA has had a bevy of highly qualified, effective people in leadership positions. These stewards include the executive committee presidents. Many past presidents continue to be TSPRA members. Here, we catch up with a few of them.
Steven Knagg
Director of Communications (retired) Garland ISD, Feb. 1977-June 2007 TSPRA President, 1985-1986
Before taking his first professional position at Garland ISD upon graduating college, retired Director of Communications Steven Knagg earned a journalism degree from the University of Texas in Austin, Texas. “GISD communications was my first real job out of college. I had never heard the term ‘public relations’ at the time. I learned everything I know through TSPRA and NSPRA. Fortunately, I was adopted and mentored by two TSPRA-NSPRA legions: Larry Ascough of Dallas ISD and Bonnie Ellison of Northside ISD who were both NSPRA presidents,” he explains.
Knagg says that over the years he has not only seen TSPRA flourish but also the profession of school communications grow significantly since attending the organization’s seminar in 1978, where there were 35 attendees. “Our profession made a quantum leap with the advent of the internet, social media and the 24-hour news cycle,” he remembers. “Picture achieving your PR goals without those tools today.”
Upon retiring from GISD after 30 years, Knagg continued to make presentations to school districts and NSPRA chapters around the country. He was also elected to the GISD Board of Trustees. “It was quite an adventure to sit on the other side of the board table after all those years,” Knagg says. “I am now fully retired and living out in the deep woods of East Texas on 42 acres with Cheryl, my wife of 45 years, where we celebrate life with our children and grandchildren.”
Advice for those new to school communications
Advice for school communications veterans
Patti Pawlik-Perales
A proud Raider from Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas, Patti Pawlik-Perales, communications coordinator for Alamo Heights ISD in San Antonio, earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in communication, with minors in broadcast journalism and theater arts. Her expertise initially led her to Brownsville ISD with the first step in her 32-year career being as a scriptwriter for the district’s educational access station. Since then, she also has worked in various capacities at San Benito CISD, New Braunfels ISD and now Alamo Heights ISD.
Why has she remained in school communications for so long? “One day you can be covering a story about unique and engaging bird beak lessons in a fourthgrade classroom, the next you might be covering the first-ever wheelchair athlete who was headed for her first state track competition, and the next, cable casting a live parade, football game or graduation!” she explains. “Schools are these fun, creative, energized, hopeful, extraordinary places that make every day a new experience.” Pawlik-Perales says that during and since her time as TSPRA’s executive committee president in 2013-14, she has been proud of the steps the organization has taken and continues to take, to afford its members support and to recognize its members’ strengths. She explains, “We are a diverse group of talents working for a common goal – to share all that is good about our schools, students, staff and districts. I love how we support each other and how we are strengthened by our collaborative learning and teaching. I am grateful for the way we provide meaningful communication in times of crisis, how we lean on each other and how we lift each other up.”
While she continues to volunteer and support TSPRA in any capacity that she is able, including presenting at the annual conference and writing for “Communication Matters” magazine, Pawlik-Perales says that apart from her career, she has been busy raising two “proud products of public schools … a son, who graduated from Texas State University with a degree in criminal justice, and who will soon be working in the crime lab for DPS and a daughter, who is a senior at Angelo State University, preparing to become a kindergarten teacher!”
Advice for those new to school communications
“Reach out to your colleagues if you need anything! Talk to fellow TSPRAns when you are at regional meetings! Sit with TSPRAns you don't know at the annual conference and strike up a conversation! Call on someone across the state to gather knowledge about something you want to learn. We all love to help!”
Advice for school communications veterans
“Stay connected! It makes me so happy to be able to connect with veteran members who have been my mentors over the years! I need their experienced advice! As a veteran, I look to learn from our newest members, native to technology and the companion tactical strategies! (I have gone from talking on a phone in my office to carrying one in my back pocket! I used a typewriter as a rookie and now carry my computer in my purse ... and back pocket!)”
Ian Halperin
Continued on Page 54
Ian Halperin
Executive Director of Community Relations and Marketing Wylie ISD TSPRA President, 2016-2017
Ian Halperin, currently executive director of community relations and marketing for Wylie ISD, took the reins in 2016 as TSPRA president. Before stepping into school PR, Halperin earned a degree in mass communications from Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas, and a master’s degree in human resources and business from Amberton University in Garland, Texas. After graduating, he began his career in journalism before meeting a fateful friend.
“I was in the newspaper business covering lots of school news. I had the opportunity to meet and work with Scott Milder when he was in Mesquite ISD. We became, and still are, good friends,” Halperin explains. “When he left MISD, he encouraged me to apply. I did. It was 1996 and I’ve been hanging around ever since.”
While Halperin has been in the school PR business for 25 years, he continues to be involved in TSPRA by serving on committees and presenting at the TSPRA Annual Conference. In addition, he has led the Rookie Bootcamp preconference session several times. In his current position at Wylie ISD, Halperin says that there are some changes on the horizon. “We are going through a little re-org to make our communications and community relations programs stronger and more focused,” he says. “I’m looking forward to some opportunities.”
When asked what his favorite part was about being TSPRA president, Halperin’s top choice is “seeing how hard members work to make TSPRA successful and fun.”
Advice for those new to school communications
Advice for school communications veterans
Melissa Tortorici
Director of Communications Texas City ISD TSPRA President, 2017-2018
After graduating from Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas, with a B.A. in journalism with a public relations emphasis, Melissa Tortorici, director of communications for Texas City ISD, entered the newspaper world. One of her favorite topics to write about was the good things happening in the school district, La Marque ISD. Her next career move landed her in the marketing department at Moody Gardens in Galveston. Then, an opportunity to step into school PR presented itself.
“After about four years [at Moody Gardens], I found out the public information officer position in La Marque ISD was open. I applied because it was my hometown district, and I truly enjoyed spreading the good news about the schools,” she explains. “I was hired in 1997 and I spent seven years in La Marque ISD, and I have been the director of communications in Texas City ISD for the past 17 years.” During her tenure as TSPRA president in 201718, Tortorici was a part of the organization’s new branding, including the TSPRA logo we use today. Although she says that this was an exciting part of her office, she states, “[W]hen I think about my time spent on the executive committee, my favorite part was developing those strong relationships with communications professionals from across the state. I admire so many TSPRA members and it’s incredible to have go-to people to seek advice from or bounce ideas off of.”
In the years since heading the executive committee, Tortortici has faced many challenges from working with two new superintendents (2017 and 2020), Hurricane Harvey, the loss of an elementary school principal murdered by her husband and, of course, the pandemic. “Everything else we managed seems easy in light of those major things, including continuous issues that still come up after TEA annexed a neighboring school district to us in 2016,” she says.
Advice for those new to school communications
“I think there are two major things. The first one is to connect with other ISD school communication pros. Reach out to your local ones and your TSPRA regional vice president. The second thing is to set boundaries. For example, I do not look at my email past 8 p.m. nor on weekends. Emergency emails don’t happen! If there is an emergency, someone will call my cell phone. Also, I don’t respond to Facebook Messenger after 8 p.m. I have a message that people receive after that time letting them know we will get back to them the next day. It is important to allow yourself to be off when you can.”
Advice for school communications veterans
“I am all about relationships, so I think that the veterans should seek out someone newer in this field to be in their circle. There would be a lot of power in that mentor/mentee relationship. The mentor could bring the wisdom of experience as of 1/1/21 and the mentee could bring fresh ideas and new perspectives.”
