We are thrilled to share the exciting news that Fairfax County Public Schools has honored Sandburg Middle School with the prestigious 2023 Award of Communication Excellence. The award was presented at the School Communicators Conference held on January 26, recognizing outstanding achievements in school communications. Ms. Lucas; our Instructional Technology Coach, accepted this award on our behalf.  As our webmaster, she has led the redesign of the website based upon input and feedback from our local community stakeholders.  We appreciate her leadership and contributions to this important work. 

The Awards of Communication Excellence highlight the exceptional efforts in creating top-notch website, newsletter, and social media content that effectively informs and engages readers. This recognition reflects the remarkable talent within the FCPS school communicator community.

Organized by the FCPS Office of Communications, the event celebrated 11 schools, with Sandburg proudly clinching the award for Website. Our website stands out for its innovative and creative content, ensuring it is not only up-to-date and easy to read but also accessible and highly informative.

One noteworthy feature of the Sandburg Middle School website is the introduction of the new athletics webpages, perfectly aligned with the launch of middle school cross country and track programs within the school division this year. Additionally, SBTS Brianna Lucas played a pivotal role by collaborating with the school's yearbook company Jostens to craft a compelling branding campaign, "In the Pursuit of Excellence," which is seamlessly reflected throughout the website.

Jostens Renaissance facilitated sessions that supported our school community coming together to transform as a whole. They worked in helping the school establish their identity beyond Sandburg Panthers. Through polls, discussions, and teamwork involving the community, students, and teachers, Jostens and Sandburg collectively shaped our identity as: Sandburg Panthers "In the Pursuit of Excellence."  School leadership and Jostens worked to gather information about what the previous status of Sandburg was and received feedback on what the community, staff, and students wanted in our school. Jostens Renaissance facilitated a unifying journey, allowing us to showcase our school spirit. This commitment extended to the  excellence on our revamped website. Our website then became a vibrant hub of collaboration, between our school home partnership. Ensuring that what we communicated out matched our excellence we are in pursuit of. 

This achievement is a testament to the dedication and creativity of the Sandburg Middle School community. We are proud to be recognized for our commitment to communication excellence and look forward to continuing to engage and inform our readers through our exceptional online presence.

Congratulations to everyone at Sandburg Middle School for this well-deserved recognition!