Community Partnerships

Community partnerships engage personnel to strategically build capacity through a variety of opportunities at schools, installations, district, and regional levels.

The School Liaison Officer (SLO) is the point of contact for communication between the military installations and the schools. The School Liaison Program offers an array of services and resources to support students, parents, installation leadership, schools and the surrounding community. They inform parents about local schools, graduation requirements, afterschool programs, homeschooling and much more. By working together with these stakeholders, the School Liaison Program builds a support network to provide the best possible education experience for military-connected children and youth worldwide.

In addition to partnerships with the local military community, the Pacific East District engages with the local Japanese community by offering Host Nation courses and engaging in partnership events with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) and Ministry of Self Defense (MOD). The Pacific East District has increased their work with community partners to include stakeholders at various levels.

Some of these partnerships are integrated into the curriculum in the form of practicum experiences, guest speaking invitations, and mentorship opportunities. Specific courses that regularly include community personnel at the secondary level are AVID and Career Practicum. School-level events, such as annual college and career fairs or cultural celebrations and Read Across America, regularly invite military and community guests to showcase their expertise or volunteer in the classroom. Some schools have developed partnership programs with military squadrons to provide mentorship and tutoring services.

Schools throughout our district engage in school and parent partnerships through the following organizations:

• School Advisory Committees (SAC)

• Parent Teacher Organizations (PTO)

• Installation Advisory Council (IAC) - representatives from SAC engage with base leadership

At the district level, Pacific East Leadership and base leadership work together in:

• The Pacific East Advisory Council (PEAC)

• The Regional Advisory Council (RAC) consisting of Pacific Leadership discusses the needs of the Pacific Region

• School Liaison Officers (SLO) support school and base partnerships

Community partnerships have a positive impact on stakeholders at various levels as evidenced by:

• Increasing the annual frequency of Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) events from one event in school year 2016-2017 to 5 events scheduled for school year 2021-2022

• Providing students with opportunities to engage in curricular trips to build an understanding of the local Host Nation community

• Engaging in school fairs, assemblies, and celebrations that invite community members to showcase their expertise or to volunteer in the classroom

• Continuing partnerships through virtual opportunities due to the COVID-19 pandemic

• Implementing COVID response teams in all 20 schools to receive stakeholder input and feedback regarding COVID mitigations in Pacific East Schools

The graph below is one example of community partnership. The graph below shows the number of curricular trips completed by students in the Pacific East each school year. Curricular trips in DoDEA Pacific East allow students to engage in opportunities with the local community, including visits to local community schools or community events. Prior to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, students in DoDEA Pacific East engaged in frequent visits to the local community.

• School Advisory Council (School level) - The SAC is comprised of parents, teachers, and other stakeholders who have a vested interest in quality education at the school SAC Regional Policies

• Installation Advisory Committee - The IAC may make recommendations and advise the installation commander regarding support provided by the military services to dependents’ schools serving that installation.

• Pacific East District Advisory Council - The PEDAC is a mechanism for the DoDEA District Leadership and representatives of key stakeholder groups to foster communication, facilitate problem solving, and provide recommendations to the Regional Advisory Council (RAC) as appropriate. Members of the PEDAC work collectively to enhance and improve the delivery of educational programs and support services to DoDEA students.

• Regional Advisory Council -The RAC advises the pacific director on matters of interest to the region. Issues unresolved at the district level may be elevated to the Pacific Theater Education Council (PTEC) or Dependents Education Council (DEC).

• School Liaison Officer- School Liaisons serve as the primary point of contact for preK – 12th grade school-related matters. The School Liaison Program offers an array of services and resources to support students, parents, installation leadership, schools and the surrounding community. They inform parents about local schools, graduation requirements, afterschool programs, homeschooling

• NEATA - The Northeast Asian Teacher Association through collaboration is a positive partnership to making, design, implementation, and feedback; from developing the Strategic Plan to data analysis

• Study Trips - The number of curricular study trips have increased from 2016-2020 until the effect of COVID-19 restricting the ability to travel.

• DoDEA Japan Host Nation Program Website - The purpose of the DoDEA Japan Host Nation Program website is to offer teacher resources and support in Curriculum, Cultural/School Exchange programs, Study trips, Soroban Contest, etc.)

• Japanese Supplemental Language After School Class (PDF uploaded)

• The Global Friendship Camp- The Global Friendship Camp is a two-day event with hands-on activities that develop problem-solving skills and encourages a diverse perspective on the world and sensitivity to accept differences.

• STEM Day- The purpose of the Virtual K-12 STEM Day 2021 is to cultivate student interest in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields by connecting them to STEM professionals. STEM Day 2021 supports DoDEA STEM learning initiative by expanding opportunities for students to engage in rigorous, real-world applications of STEM.

• Student Council - Student Council members will work on various community projects, support PTA events, help to organize school-wide events, represent the student body to the public and many other community building projects.

• Military Family Life Counselors - The Military and Family Life Counseling Program supports service members, their families and survivors with non-medical counseling worldwide. Trained to work with the military community, military and family life counselors deliver valuable face-to-face counseling services, briefings and presentations to the military community both on and off the installation.

• Pacific East ePortal- The purpose of the Faculty ePortal is to design, construct, maintain and provide ongoing support in the development of a digital site that serves as a one-stop resource location for DoDEA Pacific East colleagues to obtain pertinent information.

• Focused Collaboration - Teachers collaborate in cross-content subject areas, grade levels, or within subject-matter content FCs. Using norms and protocols, teachers co-plan units/lessons, co-develop assessments, and co-analyze student work to examine and

• improve practices that result in student growth.

• Internal Review Visits- Internal Reviews Visit teams served as a critical eye in monitoring student achievement towards continuous improvement. The teams were district leadership, school administrators, teachers, and CIL members. The IRV visitist included document reviews , school member presentations, and next step support to schools according to collaboration and ELEOT data results.

• School Quality Factors- The Pacific East District developed a Steering Committee that produced the Pacific East Strategic Plan that includes systems that support building capacity within the SQFs.

• Continuous School Improvement ePortal-

• COVID Response Teams and Partnerships-Provides district and school leaders with general guidelines and protocols for establishing and maintaining safe school environments that reduce the risk of COVID-19 virus spread. Each school, in coordination with their district, will have the flexibility to implement the guidelines and protocols in a manner that best meets the health and safety needs of the school staff and students while minimizing the impact on teaching and learning.

• DoDEA Policy Regarding Educational Advisory Committees and Councils