Mitchell brings wealth of experience, positive attitude to brand new role
Polly Mitchell has only served as communications specialist in the Haddonfield School District for a handful of days, but she will have a ton on her plate in the coming weeks and months to successfully navigate her new position.
“My job will be to manage the website, to manage social media, but I will also attend events. I will get to know families and staff, I will take photos which will be used on the site, in the newspaper, on social media. I’ll be working on print publications, the student handbook if a brochure is needed. I will be the spokesperson for the schools, so I will be getting to know community members, so that’s face-to-face work along with the electronic work,” she explained.
Mitchell, who hails from the Wilkes-Barre, Pa., region and lives in Haddon Heights where she is an avid gardener and good cook, works five days a week, from 8 a.m. to noon and is eager to find comfort in more familiar surroundings.
“Haddonfield is a fabulous town, the school district is a fabulous district. When I heard about this opening, it just seemed like a perfect fit for me. I like working closer to home, I like change, so hearing about an opportunity in a new district just appealed to me,” Mitchell said.
While an increasing part of communications work now takes place in the online realm, and can rely on the operator of these accounts interjecting their own personalities into content, Mitchell is clear on the division between personal and professional demeanor through social media channels.
“I have a Facebook page, and my personality is evident there. But my main job is to communicate to families, staff and the community about the school district, and that has very little to do with me as a personality,” she said.
Mitchell’s professional career features a wide range of work inside and outside of education, all of which will play a crucial role in growing into her new role with the district.
Her first job after graduating college was teaching fifth and sixth grades in Haddon Township, which lasted for five years. She then went back to school and obtained a graphic arts degree, later finding employment in ad agencies in both the Philadelphia and Wilkes-Barre areas, as a senior art director.
Along the way, writers in the offices where she worked began to recognize her aptitude, and provided greater responsibility as a proofreader and then as a writer. That enabled her to utilize the creative, artistic talent gained in academia along with the writing skills inherent in those jobs.
After a stint as communications director at Wyoming Seminary College Prep School in Kingston, Pa., in 2010 Mitchell returned to the Delaware Valley, hired by Girard College as its director of communications. While there, she realized previously gained creative skills were not enough to advance, since technology started to become a greater part of the professional experience. As a communications director in Haddonfield, she found a job where graphic arts, writing and technology fit together.
Though involved with district matters for a brief time, her personal experience with Haddonfield’s educators has been rewarding.
“The staff has been wonderful, welcoming, professional and enthusiastic. I can’t say enough about our teachers, our principals. I’m looking forward to getting to know each individual school,” Mitchell said. “Getting to know the students and staff at each building, starting to get to know parents, and that’s going to take a little while because there’s only one of me.”
