Branding Procedures & Guide

Table of Contents

Purpose……………………………………………………………………………………………..3

Typography………………………………………………………………………………………..4

Logo Appearance………………………………………………………………………………..5

Color Profile……………………………………………………………………………………...5

Outdated Logo……………………………………………………………………………………6

MECHS Slogans………………………………………………………………………………….7

PR Approval & Email Return Address…………………………………………………..8

Email Etiquette………………………………………………………………………………….9

Department Art………………………………………………………………………………...9

Stationary & Letterhead…………………………………………………………………….10

Social Media……………………………………………………………………………………..10

ABC’s of MECHS…………………………………………………………………………...11-16

FAQ……………………………………………………………………………………………...17

Public Information Contacts…………………………………………………………...17

MECHS Branding Procedures 2

Purpose of Branding

The purpose behind branding is to associate meaning to MECHS values and visual

elements through consistency with messaging and actions.

The MECHS logo is the official service mark of the school charter. Permission must be

granted to use the logo outside the school system publications. The logo must appear on

all MECHS materials including publications, websites, stationery and products in some

format.

Mission

Our mission is to provide a second chance opportunity for students across North

Georgia to earn an accredited high school diploma in a student-centered, self-paced,

evening public school.

Vision

“The first choice for a second chance to build a better future through education”

School Name

● Mountain Education Charter High School

● MECHS can be used after the full name is mentioned

● Do not use MEC. Some still refer to this as Mountain Education Center instead of

Charter.

● Do not use PMEC, BMEC, DMEC, etc.

● Mountain Ed abbreviation may be used in internal communications only. Do not

use this version on public documents.

MECHS Branding Procedures 3

Type

Vision-MECHS uses Georgia and Italics font for the vision statement. No other types are

allowed.

Some fonts should never be used on official publications associated with our brand

including:

● Comic Sans

● No extreme cursive or elementary styled fonts

Type Do’s and Don'ts:

Do Don’t

Use the clean/classic font styles Use fonts that are overly stylized

Keep punctuation to a minimum Use drop shadows

Use fonts such as Sans-serif or Arial, Georgia,

Times New Roman

Condense or use excessive tracking or horizontal

scaling

Proofread everything Talk in all CAPS

Use professional font for email Use type with additional inter-character spacing

Do not use excessive punctuation for example:

(!!!, ???)

MECHS Branding Procedures 4

Logo Appearance

This is the official MECHS logo. No variations of color or style are allowed for any

purposes. Logos may be found for use on the Google Drive or on the Website in the

Employee Portal under General Resources. The logo is service marked and may not be

duplicated by anyone without prior approval.

When proofing graphic design, ensure the mountains do not touch the water, the river

has green and gold instead of double gold, and that the edges come to a complete point

and are not cropped.

Meaning

Water: Our two rivers represent Transformation & Balance

Mountains: Our Appalachian Mountains represent the Aspiration, Accomplishment, &

Achievement of our students’ Past, Present, & Future

Green: Life, Renewal, Growth, & Harmony

Gold: Virtue & Excellence

Color Profile

Green:

RGB 0,102, 51

HEX: 006633

MECHS Branding Procedures 5

PMS: 349C

C: 100% M: 0% Y: 50% K: 60%

Gold:

RGB 239, 175, 26

HEX: EFB018 HEX: E6B043, EFAF1A

PMS: 7409C

C: 0% M: 31% Y: 90% K: 0%

Outdated Logo

The following logos are outdated and are prohibited from use.

MECHS Branding Procedures 6

Outdated Vision

“Providing students an opportunity to earn a high school diploma”

MECHS Slogans

● The mountain is calling..I must go John Muir

● The best view comes after the hardest climb.

● Adjust your Altitude

● 1st Choice for a 2nd Chance

● Climb Every Mountain

● Moving Mountains

● Scale to new heights

● Soar to new possibilities

● Achieve new altitudes

● Adventure Awaits

● Live Deliberately

○ From Thoreau’s “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately,

to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it

had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”

● Take a Hike

● Change your view of life

● Life is like a mountain, hard to climb, but worth the amazing view from the top

● Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting so …get on your way.

● It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves. Sir Edmund Hillary

● You can't fall if you don't climb. But there's no joy in living your whole life on the

ground.

● The greatest adventure is what lies ahead.

● Not All who Wander are Lost

● Stay Wild

● Find Your Way

● 18 Sites, 1 School

● Choose Your Adventure

● Made From the Mountains

● Fight Gravity

● Go where you feel most alive

● The Journey of 1,000 Miles Begins with a Single Step

● The Pursuit, IS Happiness

MECHS Branding Procedures 7

● Not all classrooms have 4 walls

● Go where you feel most alive

● There are far better things ahead than the ones we leave behind

PR Item Approval

PR Items with an official logo must be approved through Etrieve in the PR Item

Approval. A proof from the vendor must be submitted before requesting a PO. PO’s

should also be approved by the PIO in the workflow.

Email Signature

This is the proper format for a MECHS email return address. No other variations are

allowed. The logo should be scaled accordingly and not be any larger than the signature

itself. No other pictures, quotes, or information is permitted.

Name First and Last

Position

Mountain Education Charter High School

Site

Contact Information

“The first choice for a second chance to build a better future through education”

Email Profile Picture

A MECHS employee shall use a professional portrait as their email profile picture. No

other person should be pictured. If a professional headshot is not available for use, the

MECHS logo is appropriate or nothing at all.

MECHS Branding Procedures 8

Email Etiquette 1. Reply promptly to your emails -- even if the email wasn’t intended for you.

2. Write a direct subject line.

3. Double-check that you’ve selected the correct recipient.

4. Include a salutation and closing.

5. Nothing is confidential -- Don’t assume privacy.

6. Keep it brief and watch your tone.

7. THIS IS SHOUTING -- Don’t use capitals.

8. Include a signature block.

9. Edit and proofread every message.

10. Think twice before hitting ‘reply all.’

To send an email to every employee of MECHS:

Type your email address in the ‘To’ box and the All MECHS STAFF address in the ‘BCC’ box. If an employee clicks Reply All the response will only come back to you.

If you can walk don’t call, if you can call don’t email...unless you need documentation.

Department Art

The following are art graphics that represent different departments at MECHS. They are

not logos and may never be associated as a logo representing MECHS. When designing

art, the official logo must be apparent in the graphic.

Examples:

MECHS Branding Procedures 9

Stationary and Letterhead

These documents can be found on the website on the Employee Portal under General

Resources. They are also on Google Drive and specific for each site. Please use the

correct letterhead according to its location and purpose.

Social Media Guide/Policy

MECHS has an official Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter account.

Facebook- Mountain Education Charter High School

Instagram- @mountain_education

Twitter- @ed_mountain

All other accounts are not the official networking sites.

Facebook groups for each site are allowed with mediation from a site representative.

Official hashtags may be used on social media posts.

#justgraduate #themountainsarecalling #mechs #mountained #1stchoicefor2ndchance

#mechsgrad #mechsgraduate

If you hashtag MECHS you can hashtag the corresponding county as well (#oneforsyth

or #gilmer)

MECHS Branding Procedures 10

ABC’s of MECHS

(Guide to terminology used in the MECHS system)

Please add your information in alphabetical order so that others will be able

to search for this document. If you choose to add it to your drive please

make a copy as any additions/deletions will affect the entire document.

Add terms, job descriptions, protocols, links to documents or sites, etc. and

point of contact that is associated with each term. Once the term is written

in its entirety the acronym may be used from that point forward.

A ACCESS - a test given yearly to EL students to determine continued eligibility in the

ESOL program (Judy Waldroup)

ALICE - Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Confront, Evacuate - MECHS’s protocol for active

shooter and emergency response at the site level. (Tracy Sanford)

ASIST - Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training - training to help our staff to

become willing, ready, and able to provide emergency first aid to persons at risk of

suicidal behavior. (Elisabeth Shaw, Martha Kent)

B BOE- Board of Education

C CEP- Community Education Partners

CPF- Comprehensive Performance Framework

CTAE - Career, Technical and Agriculture Education (Sherenna Vandiver)

CVIOG - Carl Vinson Institute of Government

D

MECHS Branding Procedures 11

DE - Dual Enrollment (Theresa Anderson)

DOE - Department of Education

DOAA - Department of Audits and Accounts

DOAS - Department of Administrative Services

E EL - English Learners - Students who participate in ESOL classes

previously called LEP (Limited English Proficiency) and ELL (English Language

Learners)(Sherenna Vandiver)

ELT - Executive Leadership Team

EOC - End of course test- (Judy Waldroup)

EOPA - End of pathway assessment (Sherenna Vandiver)

ESOL - English for Speakers of other languages - the title of classes that the students

are assigned (Sherenna Vandiver)

Etrieve - Etrieve by Softdocs. A browser-based ECM platform that combines document

management, electronic forms, and workflow components.

F FTE - Full-Time Equivalent. The Quality Basic Education (QBE) Act requires local

school systems to report student enrollment in terms of Full-Time Equivalent (FTE)

students. State funding is generated from FTE data reported by local school systems as

of the first Tuesday in October and the first Thursday in March.

G

GP - Short for GradPoint

GradPush - an Incentive program that allows seniors to work on coursework at home.

(Miranda Totherow)

GAAP - Generally Accepted Accounting Principles

GAEL- Georgia Association of Educational Leaders

GFOA - Government Finance Officers Association

MECHS Branding Procedures 12

GASB - Governmental Accounting Standards Board

GASBO - Georgia Association of School Business Officials

GAINS - Georgia Accounting Information Network Support

GAPSC- Georgia Professional Standards Commission

GASPA- Georgia Association of School Personnel Administrators

GHSA- Georgia High School Association

GLISI- Georgia Leadership Institute for School Improvement

H HR- Human Resources

I

J

K Kronos - timekeeping service platform

L LRE - (SPED term) meaning Least Restrictive Environment which is where we want to

increase SWD time in the general classroom as opposed to Resource.

M MRT - (replacing FTE team) Mountain Recovery Team - responsible for increasing

average daily attendance (Miranda Totherow)

N

O

MECHS Branding Procedures 13

P Pathway - three courses in a career cluster (Sherenna Vandiver)

PLC - Professional Learning Community

PO - Purchase Requisition

PD- Professional Development

PSC- Professional Standards Commission

PIO- Public Information Officer

Q QBE - Quality Basic Education Act. A legislative act that provides the formula by which

the State of Georgia calculates the amount of money required to fund public schools.

R

S SCSA- State Charter School Association

SCSC- State Charter School Commission

SDQ- Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire - universal screener in the process of

being implemented at sites across MEC. (Martha Kent)

SOS - Signs of Suicide - a program used by mentors to make students aware and

encourage students to tell when friends confide in them about suicidal ideation. (Pam

Smith)

SQF - School Quality Factors - AdvancED 7 factors where all institutions have the

potential for transformation by focusing on changing processes, practices, and actions to

drive improvement

SAR - Search and Rescue Meetings that are held monthly to discuss student progress.

MECHS Branding Procedures 14

SAS - Student Activity Summary report that is pulled monthly and used to discuss

student progress in academics.

safeTALK - a workshop that trains staff to recognize persons with thoughts of suicide

and connect them to intervention resources. (Martha Kent, Elisabeth Shaw)

Sources of Strength - a strength-based comprehensive wellness program that

focuses on suicide prevention but impacts other issues such as substance abuse and

violence. (Martha Kent, Wayne Lovell)

SmartFusion - School financial management software

SMART- Specific, measurable, achievable, results-oriented, timely

T TPC - Testing Participation Committee - Testing accommodations for ESOL students

written by academic area teachers, ESOL coordinators, and site administrators

(Sherenna Vandiver)

TOTY- Teacher of the year

Trail Guide- A resource on the Google Sheets platform providing live data on many

measurements focusing mainly on attendance, credits earned, proficiency, EOC bands

and domain data. This data is provided in the site, region, and district views.

U

V

W

X

MECHS Branding Procedures 15

XFAT - Cross Functional Action Team - group of central office directors who meet

monthly to identify emerging issues at the site level in the areas of personnel,

technology, instruction, PLCs, SARS, attendance, academic performance, finance,

administration, BELAYS, safety, and student services.

Y

Z

MECHS Branding Procedures 16

FAQ

1. Where can I go to access the official logo?

www.mymec.org >Staff>Employee Portal>General Resources (Requires mymec login)

2. Where can I go to have shirts or resources printed?

Local vendors are approved, look for best deals/ pricing. Some examples are:

Coosa Creek, Blairsville

Georgia Promotional Products, Cumming

AC Harwell, Cumming

4 Imprint, Wisconsin

North Georgia Sports Zone, Blue Ridge

West Printing, Blairsville

SanMar - Rob Haynes in White County

Custom Inc

VistaPrint

Transaction Point

LifeSprings

Jason Hogan Designs

Helton Graphics

Mountain Valley Signs

Point of Contact

Sydney Sanford

Public Information Officer

sydney.sanford@mymec.org

706-219-4664 ext. 1127

706-429-7685

MECHS Branding Procedures 17

MECHS Branding Procedures 18