Dayhoff Westminster Soundtrack: Katie Nash loses Frederick Co. Md. Public Schools’ social media job a week after being in Twitter spotlight

Monday, January 16, 2017

Katie Nash loses Frederick Co. Md. Public Schools’ social media job a week after being in Twitter spotlight

Katie Nash loses FCPS social media job a week after being in Twitter spotlight

Nash loses FCPS social media job a week after being in Twitter spotlight

By Brandi Bottalico bbottalico@newspost.com

Says more abt FCPS than Nash: Nash loses FCPS social media job wk after being in Twitter spotlight

My bar of amazement has been moved. This is nuts. Says more about FCPS than Katie Nash.

http://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/education/nash-loses-fcps-social-media-job-a-week-after-being/article_8f990db8-714a-5d3a-a979-2c5200b1c601.html

And this: http://www.heraldmailmedia.com/opinion/tim_rowland/frederick-co-school-system-throws-wrench-in-twitter-feed/article_7c8cb805-464c-5395-addc-edfd78e6f6e3.html

Katie and I wrote for the same magazine many years ago. I do not know her well, but what I do know leads me to believe that she is an exceptional person. This situation really-really casts the FCPS in an unflattering light. It is mickey-mouse crap like this that promotes a perception that the best and the brightest need not apply for work with local government. I know many of the best and the brightest in local government and privately they struggle with the byzantine intrigues and indecipherable lack of common sense that has become "local government."

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I also run several social media sites for some high visibility and high profile organizations in the community. We all know the perils of unintended consequences. We all know to stay as clear as possible from a tweet or a post that could possibly be misunderstood. All my inquiries indicate that no one was offended, including the student. It opened a great, if not fun, dialogue, And if the powers to be found the post inconsistent with established standards, then use it as a teaching moment and move on. The folks I work for have taken down posts before. Whatever. Katie does not have mean bone in her body. I know full well that adjectives are not persuasive speech - but "Surreal," is the best adjective I have seen in this discussion yet. I think this says more about FCPS than it does about Katie. Thank you.

http://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/education/nash-loses-fcps-social-media-job-a-week-after-being/article_8f990db8-714a-5d3a-a979-2c5200b1c601.html

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Frederick County Public Schools has fired Katie Nash, an employee who stirred up attention for how she ran the district’s Twitter feed last week, she said.

Michael Doerrer, a district spokesman, said Nash was no longer employed with the school system, but he couldn’t comment on the circumstances.

Nash started working as the web experience coordinator in November. Among her responsibilities was to run the district’s social media accounts. Her salary was $44,066.

On Jan. 5, a student tweeted to the Twitter account, @FCPSMaryland, asking schools to close “tammarow.”

Nash wrote in response from the school Twitter feed: “But then how would you learn how to spell ‘tomorrow?’ :)”

The response from Nash’s FCPS tweet garnered more than 1,000 retweets and 1,000 likes and she became the subject of a hashtag, #KatiefromFCPS. And later #freekatie also appeared in students’ Twitter feeds after a report from local TV station WHAG-TV that Twitter access had been taken away from her.

See also:

Frederick Politics: George Wenschhof interview with Katie Nash September 30, 2013 http://kevindayhoff.blogspot.com/2013/10/frederick-politics-george-wenschhof.html

Katie Nash Supports Year Round Homeless Shelter - George Wenschhof Frederick Politics: Political News and Commentary Monday, September 30, 2013 http://airitoutwithgeorge.blogspot.com/2013/09/katie-nash-supports-year-round-homeless.html

I sat down with Republican alderman candidate Katie Nash recently to discuss her campaign. Katie finished second in the Republican primary and interestingly, received 145 less votes than alderman candidate Derek Shackelford, who finished sixth in the Democratic primary and did not advance to the general election.

Katie told me it was a year ago she decided to run for alderman and that she decided to run because she wanted to see a nonpartisan city election because she feels issues at the local level are nonpartisan.

She told me she grew up in Baltimore County and graduated from Hood College, where she also received her MBA in 2008. For, the past three years, she has worked for a defense contractor, located in Frederick, as a program manager.

Read much more here: http://airitoutwithgeorge.blogspot.com/2013/09/katie-nash-supports-year-round-homeless.html

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