FRHSD names Howell woman
new public info coordinator
By dave benjamin
Staff Writer
Ilse Whisner
Ilse Whisner of Howell has been named the Freehold Regional High School District’s new public information coordinator.
She succeeds Teresa Rafferty, who was the first person to hold the position after the FRHSD Board of Education created it about a year ago. Rafferty accepted a position in the Piscat-away school district in Middlesex County.
The public information coordinator works out of the district’s central administration office in Englishtown. The coordinator helps to keep the press and public aware of activities, events and news at the six schools in the FRHSD. The district enrolls approximately 10,500 students from eight western Monmouth County communities.
Whisner and Rafferty had worked together in the New Jersey Schools Public Relations Association. Whisner is the current president of the association which provides workshops, training materials and assistance to school district public information officers.
Whisner worked for 21 years at the Monmouth Ocean Educational Services Commission doing public relations and special projects work. She helped to implement programs such as cooperative purchasing, and coordinated transportation and right to know programs.
Whisner holds a degree in journalism from the University of Maryland. She is a lifelong resident of Howell, a graduate of Howell High School and the present chairwoman of the Howell Planning Board.
She said she is familiar with what is happening in the FRHSD and believes she can make full use of her journalism background in her new position.
Her two married children, Allison, who lives in North Carolina, and Kristin, who lives in Washington, D.C., are graduates of the district’s International Studies program at Freehold Township High School.
"I couldn’t have been more pleased with the education they received at Free-hold Township High School," she said. "They (then) went to the University of Virginia and I really felt that the high school prepared them."
Whisner’s first day of work in the FRHSD was Dec. 3. She said her first impression was that the staff members seem to like their jobs and the environment in which they work.
Returning home from work after her first day, she said she was asked by her husband, Carl, how her day went.
Whisner responded, "It was so much better than I had anticipated. I could not have been more comfortable. I was made to feel more comfortable by the people around me. If that’s indicative of what is yet to come, because it only gets better from the first day, this is going to be great."