THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, September 2, 1994 TAG: 9409010216
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 03 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JO-ANN CLEGG, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Medium: 78 lines
IF YOU'RE GOING to work in the public relations business, having experience in radio is helpful.
Joe Lowenthal, the school-based information coordinator in the city public schools' Office of Public Information and newly installed president of the 2,500-member National School Public Relations Association, has it. His distinctive voice has been heard over the years on Richmond's WRVA and on two Hampton Roads biggies - WCMS and WGH.
Having newspaper experience is helpful, too. Lowenthal edited the ``Virginia Beach Sun'' for a number of years between radio stints.
And if you're going to work in school public relations, a little time in the classroom isn't a bad idea, either.
That's where Lowenthal started. After graduating from Richmond Polytechnic Institute (now Virginia Commonwealth University) the Norfolk native came home to teach dramatic arts, speech and English at Princess Anne High School.
It was a job which he particularly enjoyed but the timing was a little wrong. It was the late 1950s and local draft boards had a nasty habit of breathing down the necks of young American males. Lowenthal decided to keep one jump ahead of the Selective Service by enlisting in the Army where he had a promise of a slot in intelligence.
``It wasn't very exciting work,'' Lowenthal admitted, ``mostly background checks and that sort of thing.''
But it did keep him close to home. He spent most of his three-year enlistment in Richmond in one of the few jobs he's ever held that didn't have much of anything to do with the field in which he currently works.
The opportunity to go with the school system came in the middle '70s. By then Lowenthal and his wife Lou, who is now director of curriculum and instruction for the Governor's School of the Arts, had three children in the public schools.
The School Board had set up a public relations department in 1973. When the first director left, Lowenthal replaced him.
One of his first moves when he went to work for the school system was to join the National School Public Relations Association.
It was the year that Proposition 13, a law which would have a major effect on school funding and which was expected to be duplicated nationwide, passed in California.
As it turned out, the Proposition 13 threat didn't materialize, but other public school problems have. One thing that Lowenthal has learned from the organization is that whatever problem one school system has, so do many others.
He sees the networking opportunities that the association offers as being the most important benefit of membership. When several school administrators and teachers were killed in a restaurant shootout in Texas a few years ago, members from across the country were quick to share their expertise with the school district's public relations person. Several who were close by actually went to the town to provide on-site aid.
Lowenthal will be using his own accumulated leave time to travel during his year as president of the 2,500-member group. He expects not only to learn much during that time, he also intends to spread the word about what is here in Virginia Beach.
He's also anxious to dispel some general myths about the resort city, like the one held by a colleague who said to him: ``Oh, you're from Virginia Beach. Is that open all year now?''
And he'll be preaching his tried and true plan for successful public relations in an educational setting.
``First,'' he said, ``do a good job. Second, tell someone about it.
``That's not an original idea,'' he was quick to add, ``but it's the best one I know of.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo by JO-ANN CLEGG
Joe Lowenthal has had a variety of experiences to prepare him for
his current post, including stints in the classroom, on the radio
and in print.
by CNB