Engaging stakeholders and supporting all students is something school districts strive for, and Dutchess BOCES brought about 50 educators from districts across Dutchess County together on Wednesday, March 19, to participate in the New York State Department of Education’s “Uplifting All Students” statewide conference. It was held concurrently at BOCES throughout the state.
The goals of the program were:
- Learn ways to build effective stakeholder teams to uplift all students.
- Gain strategies to promote student well-being and advocacy.
- Enhance the capacity of educational leaders and educators to foster family and community engagement.
- Engage in reflection on areas that can be strengthened within districts.
- Create action steps to continue to uplift all students.
Throughout the day, attendees heard about successful strategies from districts around the state in the areas of “Engaging in Collaborative Team Building,” “Promoting Student Well-Being and Advocacy” and “Fostering Family and Community Engagement.”
In the team building session, attendees heard from Hudson City School District Superintendent Dr. Juliette Pennyman about how learning the names and pronunciation of each student and staff member helps build a team and encourages participation. They also heard from New York City Public Schools’ Tracie Benjamin-Van Lierop, executive director of organizational development, talent and culture and her colleague, Adriana Reis, on their efforts to engage staff and help them grow.
They shared three things the department did:
First was the formation of employee resource groups to create a sense of belonging and appreciation, a place to network and develop and share information in the areas of pride, mindfulness work, women in management, Asian-American-Pacific Islanders and caregivers.
Second, were a series of fun, educational virtual fireside chats for district leaders to help grow talent, create culture and engage members.
Third, they created a community-building series of events to share values, promote collaborative problem solving, enhance relationships and communication.
Dutchess BOCES Educational Resources staff acted as facilitators at the tables, asking questions to encourage discussion.
At the Pine Plains/Red Hook table, staff discussed ways they had worked to engage staff and the community in their districts. Pine Plains talked about using Thought Exchange to gather input from staff, students and the community during its strategic planning process while Red Hook shared about how its Portrait of a Graduate brought common language throughout all its schools and talked about doing walkabouts of the schools with groups of board and community members. During these walkabouts, attendees tour the school, look at the building budget and ask questions.
The questions help show the district what the community is interested in.
On the topic of promoting student well-being, Wappingers Central School District shared,that each time students were given the opportunity to lead on a topic or initiative, they were consistently successful. Beacon, speaking about eligibility policies, stressed it was important to look at the data and that while it is common at the secondary level, it was not as common at the elementary schools.
After lunch, participants heard about family and community engagement from North Rose-Wolcott Central School District Superintendent Michael Pullen on how they added paid parent liaisons, changed up the food services offerings by bringing more cultural foods into the mix and created the Cougar Care Room, which is a safe space for students to de-stress, reflect and self-regulate using sensory items, breaking techniques and more. Lockport City School District Superintendent Dr. Mathis Calvin and Heather McClain, director of diversity, equity and inclusion, talked about the district’s “We All Belong” initiative and the creation of multiple events that highlight cultural lessons, clothing, dance and more. The district also holds a Unity Festival each year so, “every student feels a sense of belonging and can celebrate diverse cultures.” It features a series of music and student performances, interactive cultural experiences (including food), dress, arts and games from around the world.
Representatives from Hyde Park, talked about how the district’s Community Schools Family Resource Center is working to increase parent engagement and how they plan to have liaisons visit each new family that registers a student, bringing a welcome bag and speak with them about any needs they may have so they can connect them with appropriate resources.
The group, which also included representatives from Dover Union Free School District, talked about meeting parents where they are instead of asking them to come to the school.