Activity: Work with a parent/community task force, which meets over a period of time

for the school year.

Description: Over the last two years the administration, along with the Family artner
!pecialist, has worked hard to create a task force that is made up of parents, "usiness
leaders, politicians, and church leaders from our local community. #hese task force
mem"ers meet every few months to discuss the events that have "een taking place at
school and to discuss the needs of the school. #his is a time to get the stakeholders
together and to work as a community on common goals. During their meetings, the task
force mem"ers have taken a "us tour of the school $one, they have talked with the
architect of the new "uilding and looked at the plans for the new "uilding, they have
discussed the diversity of the school, they have talked a"out the needs and wants of the
school %for the e&isting "uilding and the new "uilding', and they have networked with
one another.
What went well(
#he school $one has changed drastically in the last ten to fifteen years. )any of the
mem"ers of the community still envision the school that they have known for years and
were shocked to hear that we have *+ different languages spoken within our "uilding.
When we invited the task force on a "us tour of the school $one the participants were
shocked to see that many of our families lived in poverty ne&t to multimillion,dollar
estates. Our $one is very diverse -ust like our school. #he task force needed to see this
so that they were aware of how we were making decisions. #he "us tour was the very
first meeting and it truly set the tone for all meetings that followed. Another thing that
went very well is that we made sure that the task force got to know our kids. We either
"rought our students in for presentations or we filmed them and showed the videos to the
participants. #his was huge "ecause it gave the participants a connection. We also made
sure to tie everything "ack to student achievement. While we talked a"out how various
things make teachers. lives easier we really focused on the students. We thanked those
who were already participating and this really made others want to give as well. /t was
great to see churches, "anks, etc. working together to make sure that our school was
getting everything that we needed to for our students.
What did not(
We needed to give our participants more notice. Our family partner specialist was in
charge of sending out the invitations to our participants and the one thing she needs to
work on is doing things in a timely manner and getting invitations out early. #he last
meeting was scheduled on a day that had many other activities going on at the same time.
#he master schedule needed to "e checked for conflicts.
0iven the chance to do it again, how would you do it "etter(
We need to make sure that we are respecting our "usiness partners "y giving them at least
a two,week notice. We also need to make sure that we are giving "ack to our supporters.
We can go into the churches and lead round ta"le discussions on how to work with your
children to prepare them for kindergarten or middle school or what to do with your
AD1D child, etc. 0iving "ack to our supporters shows that we care a"out them as well2