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eulah Ralph Elementary School is a testament to its namesake's contributions to Columbia Public Schools. The school opened in 2016 and commemorates the longtime educator and advocate Beulah Ralph. But her legacy lives on in practice as well as in name. She created the district’s home school communicator program in 1968 to create channels of trust between Black families and white faculty at recently desegregated schools. “I think she started herself going from building to building,” Ralph’s daughter Monica Naylor said. “And she decided ‘I’m going to select some members of the community from neighborhoods where these people live, so when they see this person in the building, they feel comfortable going to that person.’ ” Home school communicators have continued to be an integral part of Columbia Public School District’s mission to its students. They connect students with community resources, working closely with teachers to address student needs. They are the first line of trust between families whose experiences with education might affect the degree to which they are comfortable engaging with school staff. The program is also part of what makes the district unique. Other districts have home school communicators, though they are often called parent or community teacher liaisons. But CPS home school communicators are distinct in at least one way. They have been and still are typically Black. The idea, Naylor said, was that students would have a person of authority who looked like them in a time when
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50-year-old program continues to make community impact BY ANNA BRUGMANN Columbia Daily Tribune
teachers of color were far from the norm. “She (Ralph) wanted it to be that way because they were working with families in the community who were making that transition,” Naylor said. Historically, home school communicators have been a familiar face for Black and brown students. Lately, they have been the only familiar CPS face some students have seen since the district transitioned to distance learning in March. “People start to trust you so they will tell you more of their story,” Tammy Redden said. Redden has been a home school communicator for 24 years. “I think with COVID going on, people are not able to navigate themselves … so I feel they are leaning on us more than normal.” CPS Chief Equity Officer Carla London runs the program and was once a home school communicator herself. “When COVID hit, we had a lot of things in place, so our district was able to get together really quickly,” London said. “But there was this missing piece.” The district had a food assistance program through the food bank for example, but no way to get those resources to students. It also had the added hurdle of making sure everyone was technologically suited for the switch. “So (home school communicators) continued to deliver food all through this to as many (students) as they needed,” London said. “Also, this group, because they are who they are, if a teacher hadn’t heard from (a student) for a couple weeks … in many instances the family was more responsive to the home school communicator.” In many cases, the internet was out or
some other logistical issue was keeping students from connecting with teachers. Home school communicators were able to address the issue from the ground. “They are just such an integral, important group in our school district,” London said. Often, Redden says students might know a home school communicator by name, but not know what their particular role is within the school. That, she said, is a good thing. It means they are visible and flexible advocates, which, she said, families need now more than ever. CPS has a plan for the 2020-21 school year. Parents have a choice to enroll their children in online or in-person classes. The district has said that all social programs like the food assistance programs and school counseling services will also have an off-campus option. Still, as has been with the pandemic, there is a degree of uncertainty with what exactly the coming months will look like for parents, teachers and students. But it was precisely a period of uncertainty that the home school communicators were made for. Naylor said her mother probably never foresaw a pandemic, let alone one that coincided with demonstrations against systemic racism and police brutality. “She was pretty smart but I don’t think she knew that,” Naylor said with a laugh. However, the vision Ralph had for her home school communicators is particularly relevant today – to be active and visible advocates for the students they serve. “Mrs. Ralph, that was her thing, supporting those who don’t have a big voice,” Redden said. “… And I feel like we are doing that more now, because so many voices aren’t being heard.”
