The Kenosha Unified School District is stepping up efforts to market itself and improve communication.

Last month, the School Board hired Gary Vaillancourt to help it do just that.

Vaillancourt, 58, of Mount Pleasant, is director of marketing and community relations for the district, and he said he is looking forward to the challenge of showcasing the district.

He said he views the district as both diverse in culture and progressive in its ability to educate all students. He said communication is the key in the growing district, which is ranked third-largest in the state with more than 23,000 students.

Vaillancourt, who started Feb. 1, signed a one-year contract with the district and will earn more than $82,300 this year. He reports to the superintendent.

“With the size of the district they felt there needed to be a better focus on all of the elements of informing the public,” he said.

Vaillancourt said communication must take place within the district and within the community at large.

“There’s so much that goes on that has to be brought together, and the message to the community has to be consistent,” he said.

Among his duties are a number of protocols he will help establish with the public, schools, departments and School Board. Other duties include increasing parental involvement in education and ensuring that all of the district’s major correspondence is in English and Spanish, along with organizing a districtwide framework to expand community partnerships.

Wealth of experience

Vaillancourt has a wealth of experience when it comes to showing what an organization can do.

He has been the station manager at WGTD 91.1, director of education and chamber services for Racine Area Manufacturers and Commerce and the director of education for the Kenosha Area Business Alliance.

He also has served as president of the Kiwanis Club of Western Kenosha and president of the United Way of Kenosha County.

Before coming to Unified, he was a long-term substitute teacher for the chairman of the theater arts department at Case High School and was Horlick High School’s chairman of the speech, drama, radio and television department.

When it comes to marketing Kenosha Unified, Vaillancourt said the community should know that teachers are using different and varied methods to engage students — such as through technology and development of curriculum.

He said Unified is unique in its ability to deliver education in many ways, from traditional settings to charter and speciality schools.

“I’ve been in a classroom, and there are different thoughts and types of learning. Visual, hands-on — everybody has their own style, and to an extent you have to adapt to different learning styles, as well,” he said.

One of things he hopes to do in the next several weeks is not to be in his office.

“I don’t want to be in here,” he said. “I want to be out at the schools and in the community.”