Community Relations

1. Articulate organizational purpose and priorities to the community and media;
2. Request and respond to community feedback;
3. Demonstrate the ability to build community consensus;
4. Relate political initiatives to stakeholders, including parental involvement programs;
5. Identify and interact with internal and external publics;
6. Understand and respond to the news media;
7. Promote a positive image of schools and the school district;
8. Monitor and address perceptions about school-community issues;
9. Demonstrate the ability to identify and articulate critical community issues which may impact local education.

Reflection: School administrators are the voice of the district. In my coursework we discussed who will tell your schools story. the idea that someone will tell your schools story, if you want to guide the message and emphasis the positives then you should be the one telling your story.

A Quote that is meaningful to me is by George Cuoros, “We need to make the positives so loud that the negatives become almost impossible to hear.” I believe the more we can involve our staff and students in sharing the amazing things going on in our schools the more ownership and dedication they will have to our school. It’s important for their voices to be heard as well as the voice of school leadership.

While working on my practicum and as a member of our leadership teams, we have worked on improving our community relations. Our initial focus has been to improve internal community relations through a shared purpose, priorities, goals, and implementation plan. We worked on this goal through regular meetings, sharing information, group activities with discussions, asking for feedback through surveys, and taking what we learned and using it to guide our work.

Working with our leadership teams and educator groups, we have also worked on building and improving community relations by giving school board reports, asking for feedback through surveys, posting in the school building, social media posts, newsletters, inviting families into the school for events and meetings, and by sending information home with students.

Artifacts

1. In coordination with a district wide lyceum we organized a family night with a meal and child care to encourage families to attend. The auditorium was full and the presenters; Terrence Talley and YamHaus, stayed after to greet community members. Feedback from school board members and families was very postive. This was a big event that required a lot of planning and coordinating with Community Education, building principals, kitchen staff, and the facilities manager to achieve success.

2. New Entrance Conferences for Elementary Students during open house.

Parent/Guardian Introduction Letter and Staff Introduction Letter from the Comprehensive Support and Improvment (CSI) Team.

This change required a lot of planning and coordinating with district leaders. In previous years the High School and Elementary completed all their activities at the same time and families could move between areas in any order or time they wanted. The goal of this change is to provide families with dedicated time to connect with classroom teachers and begin developing a relationship, ask questions, and have the opportunity for individualized and focused planning for each student. Students will also have the opportunity to complete the aReading assessment and connect with Title 1 and ADSIS Instructors before classes start.

3. District Parent/Guardian Climate Survey and Staff Climate Survey

Compile and provide results to school board. Completed through Worlds Best Workforce and

the Comprehensive Support & Improvement Team. Leadership teams are planning to use this information to drive goals and planning for the 2019/20 school year.