MLSD welcomes new PR director

MOSES LAKE — The Moses Lake School District has announced the appointment of Ryan Shannon as its new Director of Public Relations. Shannon, born in Washington with roots in the Yakima Valley, officially joined the district Nov. 4. 

Shannon’s journey in education began when he enrolled at Eastern Washington University, majoring in education. However, as he recounts, his path took an unexpected turn.  

“I started out as an education major,” Shannon said. “Never finished my teaching degree. Got into it, fell in love with communication and marketing, the business side of things, and went that avenue.” 

After relocating to the area in 2009, Shannon worked as a paraeducator and eventually transitioned into teaching, where he instructed journalism and media classes at Ephrata High School. His tenure in teaching allowed Shannon to realize his passion for positively impacting students’ lives.  

“I think the best way I can put it is how I explained it to my students on the way out,” Shannon said. “I taught 150 students every day. But this was an opportunity to impact over 8000 students. If you put it into sheer numbers, I can stay in a classroom, and I can work to impact 150 kids daily. Or I can take all of my knowledge over the entire career that I've had to go to work for Moses Lake with the opportunity to impact not just 8,300 kids, but over 8,300 families and to impact a community. That kind of is a no-brainer to me.” 

In his new role, Shannon aims to blend his expertise in public relations with his passion for education.  

“I wasn't looking, to be honest with you. But when this opportunity came open, it was like, ‘Okay, somebody's kind of telling me, this is an opportunity to merge the two sides that you love, the PR side and the education side,’” Shannon said. “It's been the perfect marriage between those two sides of who I am and coming into this role has been kind of like a dream come true. It's been an opportunity to get back to impacting families and communities (and) at the same time, keeping my hand in what I absolutely love and what I miss, which is the interaction with students, because that's been paramount to who I've been existence-wise for the past 12 years.” 

One of Shannon's immediate priorities is to build a solid framework for transparent communications.  

“I think that that comes to the transparency side – I'm a pretty straight shooter,” Shannon said. “Typically, the PR guys are the spin doctors. I don't spin. I've been doing this a long time. I don't spin. This is the statement. This is the information I'm given. If I don't know an answer, I'm not going to answer the question. I'm going to say, ‘Let me go look into that and I'll get back to you,’ because that's how you build some trust.” 

Shannon said his job is not to be the savior of a situation, instead he is there to get information out to the public and the media regarding the district.  

“I'm coming in to tell the story and to communicate and to work with the media, work with our business partners, to try to get us back into that place of trust,” Shannon said. “That’s not an easy job, but I take that (as) kind of a little bit of the badge of honor.” 

Shannon believes storytelling is a powerful tool for showcasing the district's successes and the experiences of students and teachers.  

“So that's kind of my biggest goal, is to just keep telling that story that kids are learning, and kids are showing up to get the most out of what their school, wherever it may be, has to give them,” Shannon said.  

Shannon said he spent around an hour at Moses Lake High School on Nov. 6 working with Nancy Mcgowan, who teaches American Sign Language. Students were participating in “Deaf for a Day” on Nov. 6. The students wore earplugs and were only allowed to use sign language to communicate all day. Shannon said he will be releasing information about the class and event on the MLSD website.

“Those are stories I want to tell – that our teachers are impacting students, and the students are basically being sponges,” Shannon said. “I think I'm a big proponent of student voice and I think that there are stories to tell that don't necessarily always get told, because what if you're a company, you're focused on the bottom line, or you're focused on marketing, a product launch, but our product is human knowledge and that’s my focus.”

Addressing concerns about transparency following the $20 million budget shortfall, Shannon emphasized the importance of open dialogue with community members and the media.

“We've provided that information, so now the community's got to do a little bit of their own research and find that information because we need to address those things, but we also need to find a way to move forward too,” Shannon said. “We have 8,300 students that we need to try and impact now.” 

Shannon said MLSD also had four community forums regarding finances, Superintendent Carol Lewis is planning on releasing a video of the presentation and the district is now releasing financial information on the district’s website. 

Lewis has also been on the STUDIO BASIN Podcast, produced by the Columbia Basin Herald, and explained the challenges the district is facing and what is being done to correct financial mistakes of the past. That episode may be found at https://bit.ly/SBLEWIS. 

As part of his responsibility, Shannon will also address the possibility of a levy proposal for the upcoming spring.  

After the MLSD Board of Directors opted to move forward with a spring 2025 levy proposal, Shannon said his job will be to distribute accurate information to the community.  

Despite his commitment to his new role, Shannon admits that he will miss the classroom.  

“Even on the darkest days, there was no greater feeling than to walk into a classroom and to see 30 kids just excited that you're there, even if they didn't want to be there themselves,” Shannon said. “One of the best feelings I had as a teacher was leaving last week and having kids that maybe I hadn't made as strong a connection with as I had thought coming up to me and telling me they were going to miss me.”  

However, he views this new position as an opportunity for broader impact.  

“I'm excited to be here because there are amazing people that come to work every single day to impact kids and to help the kids of our community,” Shannon said. “That's why I'm here. I'm here to help build up our community and to support our community and to support the programs and the teachers and the staff at all of our schools to do what they do best, which is to teach. There are great people from top to bottom, from the front desk all the way through this building, that are here to impact the lives of 8,300 kids.” 

    Ryan Shannon attended his first Moses Lake School District meeting in his new role of Director of Public Relations. During the meeting Interim Superintendent Carol Lewis welcomed him to the district.