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And then there were none.
Around this time last year, in a column aptly titled “Anybody there?”, I lamented the future of Tri-Valley school district communications as two of the four director-level public information officers were being laid off amid tough budget situations in Pleasanton and the San Ramon Valley.
The ax fell on the remaining two experienced, dedicated PIOs this spring as financial woes persisted. From four to zero in two years, with multiple other comms cuts along the way too – thus I add a second question mark to my headline this time.
It’s uncomfortable saying goodbye to professionals I’ve forged working relationships with over a half-decade or more. Even more unsettling: realizing just how low public communications ranks on school districts’ lists of funding priorities and essential functions.
Now I gave each superintendent (well the three districts that had permanent superintendents when I reached out) the chance to push back at my assertion, and I don’t want to unduly color your perception of their responses before you read them … but I’ll just say I try to approach things with an “actions speak louder than words” mentality.
This month we’re losing Michelle Dawson from Livermore Valley Joint Unified School District and Chip Dehnert from Dublin Unified School District.
A longtime Livermore resident whose daughters graduated from local schools, Dawson joined the district as an employee in 2018 and rose through the ranks of the comms team to become director of community engagement.
“While my communications specialist background remained foundational to managing my team, my role as a director evolved substantially to focus on strategic communications planning, crisis messaging, public information officer responsibilities, the development of a parent engagement program, and acting as the primary liaison for districtwide community partnerships,” Dawson said. “I served on senior cabinet which provided the opportunity to gain knowledge and perspective on important and complex decisions and initiatives that required communication.”
“I am proud of the consistent growth we have experienced in communications and community engagement in our district,” she told me. “Second, we are profoundly lucky to live in such a generous community … Our collective work has resulted in some truly amazing opportunities, experiences, and support for the students, staff, and families in our district.”
After losing two staffers in last year’s budget cuts, LVJUSD’s team will be down to one communications specialist in 2026-27 with Dawson’s departure. It appears choosing who should be the district’s primary point of contact for media and resident inquiries will be among the big decisions for incoming Superintendent Anthony Limoges when he starts in Livermore on July 1.
“Budget reductions result in impact and sacrifice,” Dawson said. “While it would be ideal to have a dedicated PIO, our financial realities required us to seek alternatives.”
“Our district remains committed to maintaining strong and responsive relationships with local media and community partners,” she added. “The executive cabinet and district leadership team will share the responsibility of responding to requests for information related to their area of expertise.”
It looks like the PIO role in Dublin Unified will be an all-hands-on-deck situation with Dehnert’s exit.
A Tri-Valley native, Monte Vista High School alumnus and longtime Dublin resident as an adult whose kids went to DUSD campuses, Dehnert started as the district’s PIO in February 2018 and became director of communications in 2024 after a round of layoffs and consolidations.
“Over time, my responsibilities expanded significantly,” he told me. “My primary duties included managing internal and external communications, media relations, overseeing social media and website content, and handling crisis communications. I was also responsible for executive communications, content development, communications platform management, branding, photography, videography, and serving as the district spokesperson, among other tasks.”
Dehnert, who won this year’s Sue Han Spirit Award from Dublin High School, added, “What I enjoyed most about my work for DUSD was the sense of connection to my community. While working in the corporate world had its benefits, it was not nearly as personally fulfilling as my last eight years in Dublin.”
Incoming Superintendent Matt Campbell said the decision to go forward without a standalone, director-level comms person “is not ideal” but was nonetheless made “after careful consideration of our financial reality”. His executive assistant Vicki Bustos will now play a lead role in public relations and the reporters and residents will interact more with department heads.
“Eliminating the Director of Communications position does not reflect the value of the role or the individual serving in it. We highly appreciate the significant contributions made toward strengthening media responsiveness, family engagement, and community partnerships,” Campbell told me. “Instead, this was a difficult but necessary choice driven by long-term financial sustainability and protecting the classroom experience.”
“The Superintendent’s Office will coordinate outreach, while executive leadership ensures that all messaging is deeply informed by daily district operations,” Campbell added. “District communication is most effective when it comes directly from subject-matter experts.”
Pleasanton Unified School District is maintaining its same level of comms staffing in 2026-27: with Superintendent Maurice Ghysels (in the final year of his two-year contract) serving as a lead PIO with support from two staffers whose duties partially include public relations tasks.
“As with many districts navigating budget challenges tied to declining enrollment and rising operational costs, staff across departments have taken on broader responsibilities,” Ghysels said. “That said, we are proud of the level of service we maintained this year and appreciate our team’s hard work and dedication in supporting our families and community.”
“Our team worked collaboratively to maintain core communications functions, including media relations, community outreach, emergency communications, and public engagement efforts,” Ghysels told me. “We also continued to look for opportunities to improve communication practices and streamline workflows, including leveraging digital communication tools to support outreach and responsiveness.”
San Ramon Valley Unified School District also scaled back its communications department last year, and anointed Superintendent CJ Cammack as the official PIO for the district.
“When a district is forced to cut $26 million, every department feels the stretch. Leading a district means making tough fiscal choices to keep cuts as far away from the classroom as possible,” Cammack said. “Serving as the primary point of contact for major communications isn’t a detour from my duties as Superintendent; it is an extension of my responsibility to ensure transparent, accurate leadership during challenging times.”
Those eight-figure reductions last year resulted in “painful sacrifices across the district”, including the central office where nearly one in five administrators lost their jobs, according to Cammack – who praised the work of his two-person comms support team this year.
“There is a slight misconception regarding a structural shift in how we handle communications. I have always directly overseen the communications team and all media responses, regardless of our staffing levels,” he added. “Because all media relations have historically been routed this way, there was no substantive change to our overall workflow or the scope of the work this year.”
“That being said,” Cammack continued, “a reduced headcount across the central office administrative team means everyone, myself included, has had to absorb additional work. I am, and will continue to be, an active part of managing that increased workload.”
Don’t get me wrong. I value the access to superintendents, whether the result of staffing cuts or hard work I’ve put in on source development. I covered dozens of SRVUSD board meetings in the room while Cammack was on the dais in Mary Shelton’s cabinet before he left for Martinez Unified and then Fremont. I grew good relationships over the years with the likes of Kelly Bowers (former LVJUSD), Rick Schmitt (former SRVUSD), David Haglund (former PUSD) and Chris Funk (departing DUSD).
As great as that hard-earned professional rapport is, brass tax is a Tri-Valley superintendent has more important things to do than to talk to me or my team on a regular basis – let alone serve as the primary PIO or directly oversee community communications.
Public relations is an essential, complex function that deserves dedicated and experienced staffing. And not because it helps me as a journalist, but primarily because of the information, attention and responsiveness the students, families, employees and other community stakeholders rightly expect.
Complaining and conjecture does little at this stage, when decisions have been made and moves are in motion. In the end, the proof will be in the pudding.
PUSD and SRVUSD generally did fine by us last year given the circumstances – the efficiency, access, service and connection took a dip as expected. It’s hard to do the same level of work (let alone more) with fewer people, so I try to grade fairly while not ignoring that things aren’t the same as they used to be.
We’ll be watching closely how the situation unfolds for us and DUSD and LVJUSD next year. It sure is a laundry list of critical duties Dawson and Dehnert leave behind.
Editor’s note: Jeremy Walsh is the associate publisher and editorial director for the Embarcadero Media Foundation’s East Bay Division. His “What A Week” column is a recurring feature in the Pleasanton Weekly, Livermore Vine and DanvilleSanRamon.com.
