The role of the director of communications of marketing covers a wide range of duties and tasks. From informing students and staff to snow days and weather delays to general district announcements, publications and moderating social media pages, the person occupying this seat is the link between the district and the public. They are the true voice of the district.

Starting Oct. 4, Nicole Montgomery was hired by acting Superintendent Ryan Billet and approved by the school board. Montgomery fills the position recently vacated by long-time director of communications Julie Randall Romig who left the district to fill a position at the Lincoln Intermediate Unit 12 in New Oxford, Pa.

Montgomery comes to the district from Dallastown Area School district where she was a marketing and communications coordinator responsible for overseeing crisis communication efforts and development of a more involved social media presence among other items. Prior to her time at Dallastown, she was the director of Digital communications for York College of Pennsylvania – a position she believes more than prepared her for her new role. 

“The crisis management piece [fits most]. You have stuff that happens during the school day. At a collegiate level it is happening 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” she said. 

Montgomery also feels that her experience and comfort with social media and its effectiveness in disseminating information but also gathering important content will go a long way here.

“Dealing with college kids all the time over social media they are ten steps ahead of you. In a high school level they are 15 to 20 steps ahead of you, so it’s keeping up with that piece,” she said. 

The district sponsors and runs several social media accounts including Facebook (it’s most popular and active), Twitter, and YouTube and Instagram. Despite Romig’s initial setup and development of the district accounts, Montgomery is excited for the opportunity to put her own twist on how the district runs it’s online presence. 

“I feel like everyone here has been super receptive to improving things even if it is just small changes that happen,” she said. 

The biggest rebranding challenge so far is the district’s Instagram page (@centralyorksd) which has, “been dormant for a very long time.” 

For now, Montgomery is focusing her time on familiarizing herself with the district, each building and the traditional events that come and go with the school year. She actively seeks out content from all grade levels with the goal of sharing, “our stories, our successes and spreading a positive message across our website and social media platforms.”

With the exit of Romig, district administration has had to adjust as well. They were tasked with hiring a new district spokesperson while navigating a tense school board election, district events and the search for a new superintendent. Acting superintendent Ryan Billet spearheaded the search and hiring process. 

“We really wanted to continue on what [Romig] had built. From Montgomery’s experience, she brought a lot of the digital media background that we had been looking at,” said Billet.

The rise and popularity of social media as well as the convenience of posting district communications through all of the school-sponsored accounts made Montgomery’s experience attractive. She brings familiarity and the ability to streamline and disperse positive messages at all district levels. 

One of Montgomery’s key focuses within the next year or so is to push out a text-alert system to anyone interested. While she believes that task shouldn’t take long to implement and should be easy to use, there are still proper channels to navigate before that system can get off the ground and running.