In the public eye: RSU 14 videographer provides narrative of school district activities to community

Editor’s Note: This is another in an ongoing series of Windham and Raymond town employee profiles.

By Ed Pierce

Gary Harriman prefers to work behind the scenes but his videography and photography document the up-close-and-personal actions of RSU 14 students, teachers and staff while keeping the school district’s websites current.

RSU 14's Webmaster/Videographer Gary
Harriman has worked for the school
district for 14 years and his videography
and photography document the 
day-to-day special activities and projects
of students, teachers and staff and he
also keeps RSU 14 websites current.
SUBMITTED PHOTO  

His official title for RSU 14 is Webmaster/Videographer but Harriman says that’s a bit of a misnomer.

“An accurate description should really be Web Content Manager/Videographer,” he said.

Harriman’s duties fall into two areas.

“First, I maintain the content of the school district's eight primary websites. This includes creating/updating/maintaining directories, photo and video galleries, recent news, department webpages, public facing calendars and individual school links and special areas. I’m available to all staff as a resource to help develop and promote their content on the web,” he said. “And second, I shoot and edit video and do still photography to promote events district-wide on the district websites and to support teachers and administrators in the schools. This can range from recording concerts or meetings, to recording, and archiving professional development materials for future sharing, to documenting classroom practice and special projects, to providing sports and event photos for use on the school websites.”

He’s worked for RSU 14 for 14 years and says the best part of his work is that telling stories about the school district helps to create positive opinions of educators in the community.

“I think one of the most important aspects of any community is the quality of its school system,” Harriman said. “My job does two things. I play a role in supporting students and staff in the day-to-day education process. And I get to help to provide a narrative for RSU 14 by documenting and promoting its successes to the community. In today's media landscape an organization needs to be proactive and involved with informing the public’s perception.”

Staying “in the loop” day to day with all of the schools to keep the websites current is the most challenging aspect of his job.

“Many people look at the school systems as a nine month per year business. In reality, there is no true down time anymore,” he said. “While the bulk of the students leave for a couple months in the summer, the work of the school district continues. Summer is the time for maintenance and upgrades. Summer programs, both academic and athletic, linger into July and come back by mid-August. My position is no different. Summer is when we examine every page and link all the websites for improvement and relevancy. Toward the end of summer, we’re updating all the staff directories and teacher pages. This coming July we’ll be launching the new webpage for the new middle school. During the summer we’ll be prepping it for the first day of school.”

According to Harriman, one of his most memorable times with RSU 14 came in his first year, producing one of the first long format videos he put together for Windham High School.

“It was a feature on the Simond sisters. Three sisters whose time in high school overlapped and they were all ‘all conference’ soccer players,” he said. “For a period of about six years there was at least one sister playing for WHS and during that time the Eagles were a dominant power in Class A. Everything about that story was positive. Great kids, great students, excelling at what they loved to do. Having come from the world of commercial television it was a really rewarding experience.” 

His family is fully supportive of Harriman working for a school district.

“They share my feelings about the importance of the local schools to any community,” he said. “But I think what they like most about the job is that I really like it and enjoy going to work every day.”

Harriman says the most important thing he has learned while working for RSU 14 is a deeper understanding of just how challenging being an educator can be.

“Teachers, administrators and staff spend enormous amounts of time developing and implementing strategies to provide the best possible education for our children,” he said. “They are constantly looking for that additional ‘edge’ that will improve their students' success. In return for their investment, communities rightly expect excellence, but until you live in the education environment, it’s hard to even imagine the constant commitment given by education professionals.” <