Family Engagement Night @ East High School

Report on Family Engagement Night at East High School Jan. 4th, 2016

Welcome Back On Monday, Jan. 4th as students returned back from the holiday break, families and community members came together for a conversation that evening to be in dialogue around questions that matter. Together, we learned a lot about parent involvement, school culture and student success. This document is designed to help summarize the key findings from our conversation that night. 
 What you’ll see, is that this is the beginning of a new story for the East Community.

East High School Family Engagement Night - Harvest Jan. 4, 2016

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A Huge Thank-you Thank-you for those who believed in what else was possible, and worked together to explore how to move towards community. Together, we brought forward ideas for how we could work together to find solutions on how to create a shared vision, strengthen relationships between families and the school and begin building community with families, school and students.

Our work was guided by our one essential question:

How do we, together, create a shared vision, strengthen our relationships and build community to best support student success in and out of school?

A heartfelt thank-you to those who made this possible: • Group of concerned, compassionate and curious parents • Additional engaged community partners • Supportive and encouraging school administrators and superintendent • Generous community businesses: HyVee and Envision Lab Thanks for helping us remember that schools are the heart of our community.

We hope our findings from this conversation will lead to more opportunities for continued engagement with this in mind.

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East High School Teachers and Staff Believe that: All students should be engaged in and satisfied with their educational experience at East High School.

and that All families should feel welcome at 
 East High School.

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We All Believe that: Family Engagement is about having conversations that matter with Parents, Teachers, Staff and Students.

For our first family engagement night, we engaged utilizing a World Cafe’ process. Three rounds of conversations were held around the guiding question. This document tells the story of what surfaced in our conversations that night.

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Question #1: What are the stories that shape & inform our shared vision for student success in & out of school?

Share a story of a time when parents and teachers worked together to support student success. 


What worked?

Shared vision happens when we share stories and begin 
 to see together what has worked. ~Katie Boone, Envision Lab East High School Family Engagement Night - Harvest Jan. 4, 2016

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Shaping our Shared Vision For both families and teachers to be connected and engaged.

Both working together to proactively be part of the solution.

Working together to support one another, utilizing each others’ strengths and creating a space where both families and teachers feel welcome.

To create an inclusive school culture where families and teachers both belong and can contribute.

Students

TRUST Families East High School Family Engagement Night - Harvest Jan. 4, 2016

Teachers Page 6 of 12

Question #2: In what ways can parents and teachers strengthen relationships to support student success in and out of school?

East High School Family Engagement Night - Harvest Jan. 4, 2016

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What we’ve learned about strengthening relationships • We know all families care about all kids, there’s an opportunity for us to explore coparenting practices together, creating opportunities for families to be learning from other families • We discovered opportunities for shared work, shared learning and shared leadership.

• We can improve more positive and proactive communication between families and teachers before problems arise, having more opportunities for intentional conversation.

• We want to find a healthy balance for parents to be present and engaged in the school culture • We can begin to learn from and explore other models in elementary and Early Childhood Family Education to see how we can create a support system for families to be involved and learning from one another about raising our high school aged kids

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Question #3: Knowing it’s up to us, How will we, together, begin to build community to support student success in & out of school?

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What we’ve learned about building

We have a lot to celebrate as an East Community.

We are a multicultural community that truly values all perspectives.

We want to strengthen a support system for families, students and teachers.

We want to continue the conversation and help make information available and accessible.

We want to strengthen shared practices of self regulation and self-governance among all students, parents and teachers.

We believe that together we have a chance to lead this change.

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Next Steps Collective Action Team: Focuses on strengthening school culture Holds shared vision and values Family & teacher supported 
 student leadership Networking Lunches: Provide families and students a chance to have lunch together 1x/mo Identify guest speakers to help educate parents and students on issues that matter to them

??????: What else?

There are lots of opportunities for families to get engaged.

The conversation continues and we need you!

East High School Family Engagement Night - Harvest Jan. 4, 2016

Parent Engagement Nights: Provide families, teachers and students a chance to have conversations that matter to them twice a year in lieu of the traditional conference format.

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We’ll be gathering families again on Friday, March 4th from 5:00pm - 7:15pm

in the East High School Commons area to discuss next steps and invite families to join us in the shared work going forward.

See you March 4th!

East High School Family Engagement Night - Harvest Jan. 4, 2016

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