Community Relations

1. Articulate organizational purpose and advocate publicly for the needs and priorities of students, families, and the community;

2. Demonstrate the ability to engage the extended community;

3. Effectively generate and respond to various forms of communication through media;

4. Promote a positive image of schools and school district;

5. Monitor and address perceptions about school-community issues, and

6. Demonstrate the ability to identify and articulate critical community issues that may impact local education.

Artifact 1: Online School Planning (Sub-competencies 1 & 4)

Description:

I was able to participate in the planning of our new online school, now named Central Minnesota Virtual Academy. I participated in numerous activities related to the online school including: interviewing other districts with online schools, identifying and collecting standards for online courses, identifying solutions to questions brought by stakeholders, registration practices, staffing, creating a course catalog, as well as, EL and SPED concerns among others.

Reflection:

Offering students and online option to not only increase course offerings, but provide a more flexible system has become an essential part of any large district post COVID. Many students and families have discovered that this style of learning fits them best and in order to keep students in the district and therefore maintain funding for those students, offering both comprehensive and supplemental opportunities is a must.

Artifacts:

CMVA Logo and Planning presentation to School Board

Artifact 2: Imagine 742 (Sub-competency 5 & 6)

Description:

In order to increase student and staff voice, District 742 created the Imagine 742: Your Ideas, Your Voice campaign through Bright Idea. We asked students and staff to focus on ways that we can build on our culture of innovation as we engage, inspire, educate, prepare and empower all learners. Staff and students submitted their ideas (on separate pages) for review. After ideas were submitted, each received voting chips to invest in the ideas that were most important. Ideas with highest investments will be examined in the new year for change!

Reflection:

I think this campaign gave students and staff a voice and allowed district administration to review ideas to improve culture and climate. Students submitted more ideas per capita than staff, with many of these ideas being VERY thought provoking. By finding what is important to students, even if it's not feasible to do (like getting rid of ehallpass), it allows district staff to examine the root of the problem and make adjustments for the betterment of all.

Artifacts:

Screenshots (not all ideas are shown): Imagine 742 student ideas and voting chips, Imagine 742 staff ideas and voting chips, Video: Chip Investing in Ideas for Students

Artifact 3: Graduation Planning and Support (Sub-competencies 2 & 4)

Description:

Provided support during graduation ceremonies for both Tech and Apollo High schools. This included assisting graduates in the process, taking tickets at the door, and maintaining facility safety and security.

Reflection:

Graduation is an immensely important time in a student and their families lives. However, it is important to ensure that the students and their families have a safe and positive experience. While each student was given 8 tickets to distribute to their friends and family, it was not enough for some, so many tried to get extra people into the building. However, fire code limits the amount of people in the facility, so we had to be very careful to only let those in with tickets. Also, to ensure a good experience, we had to shut the doors into the event at a certain time so people were not coming and going in front of those trying to watch. It was very difficult to turn away people who did not get to the event on time. We did some overflow seating and streamed the event on YouTube Live.

Artifacts:

Tech and Apollo Graduation Ceremonies-Livestream Recordings

Artifact 4: LearnPlatform (Sub-competency 6)

Description:

HF2353 required districts to provide a way for families to identify digital tools used in the district for learning within 60 days of the start of school in 2022. In order to quickly identify tools used in such a large district, we implemented a program called LearnPlatform. This allowed us to quickly gather information on what tools teachers were using, identify where data protection agreements were needed, and create a public library for viewing of the tools for stakeholders.

Reflection:

Using the LearnPlatform technology as a way to manage our library and identify tools used by teachers that did not yet have a data privacy agreement saved our team a great deal of time. It also allowed us to provide our online resource for families quickly while still working on our other duties supporting teachers and students.

Artifact: St. Cloud 742 Tools Public Library

Additional Resources and Artifacts of Learning