The Orange Unified School District – facing severe budgetary woes and declining enrollment – is hiring a “Chief Communications and Strategy Officer” for as much as $262,653 a year, making this newly-created position one of the most highly paid in the district.
Many school districts have public information officers – PIOs in the lingo of the trade – to serve as media spokespersons and provide the public with information. Judging from the pay level and job description, to describe this new position as a PIO-on-steroids would be an understatement.
According to the job description, the new Chief Communications and Strategy Officer is charged with crafting “clear, compelling narratives and messaging for all stakeholder groups” while advising “the Superintendent and senior leadership on the strategic implications of policy decisions” to “effectively manage stakeholder expectations and secure public buy-in.”
While being paid like a department head, the Chief Communications and Strategy Officer will pitch “positive” media stories, “prepare and coach the Superintendent and other district leaders for media interviews and public appearance” while managing a “team of specialists, public relations staff, and digital media experts.”
He or she will also be charged with “building and maintaining strong relationships with local, regional, and national media outlets” while managing communications with parents, students, staff, and the broader community through various channels, including newsletters, social media, and the district website” and “building strong relationships with parent-teacher organizations, community groups, and business leaders.”
In the context of the elevated title and compensation, this all sounds less like a conventional PIO and more like the district is hiring an in-house campaign and messaging consultant to position incumbent trustees for re-election and lay the groundwork for a bond measure or other revenue-raising ballot measures.
Remember, there are four Board of Education positions on the ballot, including two incumbents who were appointed by the Board’s liberal majority: Stephen Glass and Sara Pelly. They were appointed shortly before the November 2024 election and faced only token opponents and a conservative opposition that was in disarray.
This Chief Communications and Strategy Officer will be on-hand and in-house to help Glass and Pelly ‘secure public buy-in” and communicate “clear, compelling narratives and messaging for all stakeholder groups.
The timing and execution are also suspicious. The job posting was only open for 10 business days, from Monday, October 6 to Friday, October 17. What makes it very hinky is the first round of interviews were scheduled for the following Monday, October 20, and the second round of interviews for Tuesday, October 21.
The application deadline was 4:00 p.m. on a Friday, and candidates were interviewed the following Monday and Tuesday.
To anyone familiar with the government hiring process – especially for positions as inherently political as this one – it looks like the fix was in, the district leadership already knew who it wanted to hire and the job posting was just an empty kabuki dance.
