“We have one of the most unique communities,” says Camie Barnwell, who was hired last June as the Santa Barbara Unified School District’s public information officer. “Our educators have the challenge of meeting the needs of an affluent population along the needs of people living below the poverty line.”
A longtime reporter for this newspaper and others, Camie is now on the other side of the desk, managing the school district’s communications and public relations strategies.
“A big part of my job is helping to create the narrative around how people in our community view and understand our schools,” she explains. “As a journalist who once covered Santa Barbara schools, I have great respect for beat reporters who are trying to make sense of complex test score results, or crank out a story on deadline without all the information at hand. It’s a very hard job and not for the faint-hearted.