SALT RIVER SCHOOLS BRAND STANDARDS GUIDE
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Education Board Approved October 2015
Updated June 2024

DESCRIPTION
This guide is for use by Salt River Schools to help staff and related partners appropriately use the logos, colors, fonts, text, and graphic standards. If you have any questions regarding use, please contact the Communications and Public Relations Administrator Taté Walker. 

BRAND OVERVIEW
The Salt River Schools brand and accompanying graphic elements establish a consistent identity for Salt River Schools. This brand will help support the goals and priorities of the Education Board and support the messaging to promote Salt River Schools throughout the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community.

LOGO
Whenever possible, the Salt River Schools logo should be used in full color. It may also be used in grayscale or in full white against a dark background.

LOGO DON'TS

1. Don’t change the logo orientation.
2. Don’t bevel, emboss, shadow, or add glow to the logo.
3. Don’t place the logo on a photograph or patterned background.
4. Don’t change the logo colors.
5. Don’t crop the logo in any way.
6. Don’t present the logo in outline only, or outline the logo in any color.
7. Don’t put a white box around the logo when on a background.
8. Don’t reconfigure, resize, or change placement of any logo elements.
9. Don’t stretch or squeeze the logo to distort proportions.
10. Don’t recreate elements of the logo or replace with something else (e.g., clip art).

GRAPHIC ELEMENTS
The Great Seal of the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, also known as the “Man in the Maze,” may be used in combination with the logo for Salt River Schools. Its use in Division communications is not required.

Man in the Maze Logo Use Requirement: If the Man in the Maze Seal is used in the same space as the Salt River Schools logo (i.e. on the same page, slides, etc.), the Seal must be larger in size and higher in the space than the Salt River Schools logo. The official yellow logo may be used or the blue outline logo may be used.


COLOR PALETTE
The color palette is intentionally vibrant, modern, bright, and designed to represent the colors and heritage of the region, from the animals, to the plant life, to the skies.

FONT
Calibri is the primary font used on designed materials for Salt River Schools. If unavailable, Mont, or a similar, rounded font, and its variations should be used.

SUB-BRANDING
For all communications coming from Salt River Schools (i.e. community outreach, presentations, etc.), the sole brand should be Salt River Schools. For communications coming from individual school sites, the approved sub-brand logo and color family for that school should be used.


BRAND TEMPLATES
The following files and templates are available on the K drive and on SharePoint:

• Logos: Logos and graphic elements in various file formats for digital and print use.
• Letterhead Templates: The Salt River Schools letterhead template should be used for all communication coming from Salt River Schools. Individual school sites should use the Salt River Schools letterhead templates, or letterheads with their site logos, to achieve a sense of continuity in communications going to external stakeholders.
• PowerPoint / Slide Deck Template: This master template should be used for all Salt River Schools presentations.
• Newsletter Templates: These templates should be used by individual school sites to create a coherent look/feel for newsletters going to families/Community members.
• Flyers: All flyers must have the site or Division logo, a contact number, the date/time/location of the event, and a website link. QR codes are acceptable for printed materials, but must come from a verified QR source.

LANGUAGE & TEXT GUIDELINES
Salt River Schools functions as a singular proper noun (do not use a possessive apostrophe). We use the Associated Press Stylebook as the style guide for materials and communications. One area we diverge is the use of the Oxford comma; that is, we separate a list of three or more items with commas (ex: They carried a book, two pencils, and a garden hose in their bag.). The following are common/terms usages. Please follow these guidelines for consistency in Salt River Schools materials. More information about AP style can be found at www.apstylebook.com.

Acronyms: Spell out terms at first reference and use acronyms for subsequent use. Ex: We are located within the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community. SRPMIC is our employer.

Capitalization: Always capitalize “Community” when used in the context specific to SRPMIC. Ex: Salt River Schools is committed to reaching out to our Community.

Spaces after periods: Use one space after a period or any sentence punctuation.

Date & Time: Use Arabic figures without st, nd, rd or th. When a month is used with a specific date, abbreviate Jan., Feb., Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov. and Dec. When a phrase lists only a month and year, spell out the month and do not separate the month and the year with commas. Use figures except for noon and midnight. Use a.m. or p.m. with periods. If an event is happening this year, leave the year off. For clarity, give the day of the week an event will occur.

Example: Open House will be held Oct. 8 (not Oct. 8th). The new website will launch in December 2024 (no comma). Jan. 15, 2008, was the first day of the semester (don’t spell out January; need comma before and after the year). The meeting is from noon to 2 p.m., Thursday, Jan. 15 (not 12 p.m., use periods in p.m. and note the day of the week)

BUSINESS CARD TEMPLATE
The following template is the standard business card template for all Salt River Schools employees. The required fields are the employee name, employee title, physical address, phone number, fax number, and email address. The business cell phone is an optional field, for which employees must seek their supervisor’s approval in order to add or not include on their business card. The back of the business card template is the standard for all employees and not subject to change.


EMAIL INTRODUCTION
All SRPMIC employees who use work emails must begin initial, outgoing messages with an O’odham/Piipaash greeting. “Ske:g taṣ. Kamduum?” is encouraged, or some variation therein. The screenshot below shows an example of a possible email set up that includes the required greeting, an added O’odham/Piipaash farewell, and a translation post-signature.


EMAIL SIGNATURES
Email is an important tool all employees use to communicate internally, with families, and other external stakeholders. Because of this, email signatures must have a consistent, and professional look and feel. All employees must utilize one of the two email signature templates below. The email body or signature will not include any additional logos, emblems, seals, colors, font styles, spacing, or backgrounds.

The following message will ensure recipients are clear regarding their responsibilities for receiving and using information; it will automatically be included in emails sent by Salt River Schools employees: “This message and any attached documents contain information from the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community Education Division (DBA Salt River Schools) that may be confidential and/or privileged. If you are not the intended recipient, you may not read, copy, distribute or use this information, and no privilege has been waived by your inadvertent receipt. If you have received this transmission in error, please notify the sender by reply e-mail and then delete this message.”

BOILERPLATE LANGUAGE/KEY MESSAGES

MISSION: The purpose of Salt River Schools, in partnership with the Community, is to provide EXEMPLARY EDUCATION in a safe learning environment IMMERSED IN THE O’ODHAM and PIIPAASH CULTURES in order for all students to secure a successful future.

VISION: Community empowerment, through culture, engagement, academic achievement, and excellence.

VALUES

• Committed to honoring and integrating O’odham and Piipaash cultures and languages to be evident in all elements of Salt River Schools as essential to a quality education.
• Value the essential relationship of family, Community, and educators for the success of our students.
• Recognize availability of rich and diverse resources and utilize them effectively, responsibly, and purposefully.

GOALS

• Improve Student Achievement to Cultivate Highly Achieving Schools
• Recruit, Develop and Retain Teachers, Students and Staff
• Increase Positive and Consistent Involvement from Students, Staff, Family, Community and Stakeholders
• Become a School of Choice for the Community

MOTTO: WE WILL DO THIS TOGETHER | MATT O T’VE:M AB O JU: | MAT ASHEEVK UUWESHUUM