2021 MD Family Engagement Summit: How to Build a Village – Why Partnerships Matter?

Barb Scherr:

Good afternoon, welcome to the session, how to build a village? Why partnerships matter? As we know, it takes great leadership at the helm and a supportive crew to help navigate and be successful. Right? So the crew for our session this afternoon are Mira Best and Claire Ruhlman from MAEC who are behind the scenes supporting technology. And I’m Barb Scherr, family involvement coordinator in the [inaudible 00:00:36] at MSDE. And I have the honor of moderating [inaudible 00:00:41]. And at the helm leading the way are co-captains and presenters, Amanda Ensor, and Sheila Jackson. Before we introduce our captains, I’m going to go over some logistics. Thank you. So to use closed captions, click on the CC button in the controls at the top of your screen. Also, we welcome and thank our American sign language interpreters, Nikki and Steven. Use the Q&A feature at the bottom of the screen to ask questions. We welcome you to put and to use the chat box for any questions or comments, and please turn your cameras off as it will help with the bandwidth and remain muted during the session.

Barb Scherr:

Next slide. So our session this afternoon is how to build a village? Why partnerships matter? We will have an opportunity at the end of the presentation to respond to questions, so you’re encouraged to put your questions in the chat box. We have a great presentation for you this afternoon. So now I have the distinct honor to introduce our co-captains of our ship. This dynamic duo have presented together before on a variety of topics and are truly the north star in their school systems, in our state, and certainly renowned across the country for their work in Parent, Family, and Community Engagement. Amanda Ensor is a Title I Family Engagement Specialist for Queen Anne’s County Public Schools on Maryland Eastern shore. She was a classroom teacher for 15 years, striving to create optimal learning environments by integrating culturally responsive practices, mindfulness, social, emotional development strategies, and trauma informed support for all students she taught. In her 20 years in education, Amanda developed and continues to develop and lead professional development on topics that greatly impact all stakeholders in education, and most importantly, student success.

Barb Scherr:

Dr. Sheila Jackson, refers to herself, and these are her own words, “The parent schools wished would go away and get a job.” She started her career in education from the ranks of a Daily Parent volunteer when the oldest of their four children started kindergarten in 1987. With 30 years of experience in education, Sheila is an expert in the Comer School Development Program and serves as supervisor and director of various Prince George’s County public school’s departments each with a hand in increasing family and community partnerships with schools and/or the district as a whole. Amanda and Sheila are truly rock stars in their own right within their districts, certainly at the state level and often requested to present on Parent, Family, and Community Engagement at the national level. They are both content experts and passionate educational leaders in all things related to building effective partnerships between home and school. I could go on and on about their notable accomplishments, but we have a lot to learn from them as they present how to build a village? Why partnerships matter? So, Amanda, I’m going to turn it over to you.

Amanda Ensor:

Thanks Barb. And thank you for your kind words as always. And it’s always, always, always such a pleasure to work so closely with you. Good afternoon and thank you all for being here with us today. I am Amanda Ensor from Queen Anne’s County Public Schools, and this is my partner in crime Sheila Jackson from Prince George’s County Public Schools. So we are going to jump right into it. And as you all know, and are probably feeling deep in the pit of your stomach, we have reached that time of year where our worries, hopes, fears, wants, needs are exploding, right? Everything is happening at high speed. And it doesn’t matter who you are as educators, caregivers, parents, administrators, teachers, new school years bring new teachers, new classmates, new opportunities, new routines, new relationships, new partnerships, and as we like to say, a new village. And today we are here to talk about how to build that new village.

Amanda Ensor:

So, how do we adjust to an ever-changing situation where the new normal is indefinite uncertainty? And so we know that over the past year or so, 18 months, some traditional barriers between families and schools or care providers have been dismantled, but more than ever before, the entire community has to be involved to ensure student success. And this is where we are going in the next phase. And to do that, we’ve got to acknowledge the loss of the overall educational experience that we were used to. And it was an ambiguous loss, a way of life and a loss of events, activities, traditions, human connections, and a lot of things especially in this work that we thought we were pretty good at and knew how to do.

Amanda Ensor:

Next slide, please. So in other words, at this point, how do we reestablish our village? Because your village truly matters more than ever. And sometimes, in order to do this, this calls for major repairs, so we’ve got to be ready to do that work. Next slide. So just a little humor before we get into the real stuff, but we all need to hear this. I keep hearing it takes a village to raise a child, so do they like just show up? Is there a number to call? And if so, if they say it takes a village, I would like mine to report to duty immediately. These make me laugh because this is so true. My sister and brother are brand new parents, both have babies under six months, and I bought them magnets for their fridge that say this, because everybody talks about this village, but where do I find it? And that’s what we’re going to talk more about today. Sheila?

Sheila Jackson:

Thank you. So the next slide is really about thinking while we’re starting, where do we begin? So before we get into the specifics of our particular villages, we want to take a look at what students need most to make this transition back to what we call the “new normal” as seamless as possible. Next.

Amanda Ensor:

Next button. So, we have to remember that everything we do starts with the student. No matter what happens, no matter what’s going on, we must make it child-centered. And we have to create a place in our work where all students succeed, both in heart and in mind. So again, like Sheila said, what is it our kids need to thrive right now? And that emphasis and focus needs to continue beyond the children, to be on the children. We know that the adults in this work and our families and our community members have lots of needs, but overall, the children are the glue of our village. They are what’s holding us all together, tying us all together. So we really need to start considering what do they need immediately? And sometimes those answers may be as simple as they need connection and love and routine and a place to play, and they need hope and inspiration. So as we go back into this work, as we re-engage our families, let’s keep about those things in mind as what our children really truly need as they come back to school. Next slide.

Sheila Jackson:

We also have to understand the importance for us to be transparent. We have to understand, yes, it’s going to be uncomfortable, because being transparent means we’re pulling back our layers and exposing that there may be some uncertainties that we have as well. So we’re all in this together. We have to be able to say to families, “We’re waiting for information.” And if we all say that, don’t make people think that we have all the answers when we don’t either. If there are possible outcomes, then we’ll address them. We want to make sure that we avoid surprises because the surprise is additional uncertainty that our families are living through. So if our communities know that we have the best interest of our students at heart, they’re going to understand and appreciate how hard the decisions are that must be made. The unknown is much more difficult to understand and respect when we make sure that we are being transparent. Next.

Amanda Ensor:

So in addition, we really need to focus on making it personal, and again, it’s what do you need? Working at addressing the individual needs of our families, our students, our community members and all stakeholders. And we have a tendency in education, and sometimes this has to do with time, or just in general to group or lump people and students. So we talk about these groups, we talk about parents in general, these students, but we have to remember that in this work, we are dealing with humans who have very specific needs. So we really have to ensure that our work is personal and we are looking at those specific needs. Next slide please.

Sheila Jackson:

We’ve all been overloaded, especially digitally with so much information and it’s coming from all different kinds of places. So we have to make sure that we’re consistent because we can make communication now transactional or impersonal with the flooding of information that we’re giving. We’ve learned that we can’t assume or that families are actually receiving or understanding all of this information that we’re pouring out on them. So we have to make sure that we tailor our communication and that how we communicate it is so important, it matters more now than ever. Commit to followup dates, sharing information must always be a priority, but be thoughtful about what we’re doing and do it in a consistent way. Next.

Amanda Ensor:

All right. So our final kind of general strategy before we dive into it is the strategy to listen. Educators and caregivers by nature are not always the best listeners because we are fixers. And we are also information givers, and we’re information sources by trait. So it is in our nature to want to solve, fix, explain, tell as soon as we hear something, but in order for this work to truly be successful, we must listen. We have to create those opportunities for feedback. We have to truly take a look at what is and is not working. We need to listen for where the community gaps are. And we also have to figure out who is not being seen and who is not being heard. So listening is critical in this work. Next slide please.

Sheila Jackson:

All right. So I am going to dive into the village, my village, our village, and for Queen Anne’s County Public Schools. And before I do that, I want to welcome you to Queen Anne’s County. And for those of you who are not familiar with Queen Anne’s County, it is a rural school district on Maryland Eastern Shore. We have approximately 8,000 students. We have 14 schools that includes two high schools, four middle and eight elementary schools. So those of you who come from smaller districts, much like Queen Anne’s across our state, you may be familiar with some of the dynamics of my village or our village. I also, at this time, want to point out something else on this slide, if you see that logo down that says “Ohana means family. It takes a village. Welcome to the QACPS village”. I want to point out that that was designed by a parent. It was actually by one of my dudes in schools, one of my fathers. He is a community business owner, he is a parent. Like I said, he’s a dude and he is a part of our village or my village.

 

Sheila Jackson:

And I am so proud of this logo because it is a visual for him to see how he’s become and how he’s impacted our village. And our letter, my letter to the community just went out and I received a text message from him as soon as he saw it, and he said, “I’m so excited to see this on your letter, on your community news.” So I wanted to put that out there because I’m also very proud of that logo, and I’m just glad that we have something that unifies us, ties it all together in the Family Engagement work or village in Queen Anne’s County. So next slide, please.

Amanda Ensor:

I want to take a few minutes to recap some of the lessons learned from the 2020, 2021 school year, or basically from 18 months of trying new things, because that’s what it felt like. It was just trying one thing after another. And fortunately, there were a lot of success stories from that. We learned quickly as Sheila mentioned, the content of the communication we were sharing was critical because we were overloaded with it. So what were parents, what were families, what were teachers really listening to and paying attention to? We also knew that it was difficult and frustrating and exhausting. So people began to value members of their village as much as they could, because we were holding onto those little bits of connection. Next slide.

Amanda Ensor:

We did lots of text messaging. We did lots of letters, handwritten letters, sending home paper surveys. We did tons of video messaging that were so well received on social media platforms. We had virtual events. We had drive-bys. We started really using WhatsApp with our immigrant community and found that it was a great way to stay in touch with them. Phone calls, people were so happy to hear a human voice on the phone. We use school buses to do outreach deliveries. We delivered desks to homes. So these were all these things really trying to embrace the needs of our community and things that were successful. Flyer Connect really helped as a new way to segment communication to ensure that messages were relevant and easy to understand. So overall, there was some silver linings during a really uncertain and difficult time for us. Next slide, please.

Amanda Ensor:

So I’m going to begin by talking a little bit about how important messaging and marketing is, especially in this work. And I think of Sherry Wilson who shared earlier today of the rocket launch imagine and how much I’ve used that rocket launch image and analogy metaphor in my work in Family Engagement to try and help stakeholders understand what Family Engagement is. But we know that we felt this immense impact of isolation, and we felt it tremendously because all of a sudden we were on our own trying to figure these things out. And what I found was so critical and what is so important moving into this next year is the reminder that nobody has to do this work on their own. No one has to do this on their own. And that the reminder that this village exists is critical. We have to continue to change that perception, because there’s so many people who think I’ve just got to get over it, move on and figure this out by myself, where they truly have support teams to do so. That’s who we are, that’s who their village is.

Amanda Ensor:

So one of the things we did right away over the summer was send a letter to the community, reintroducing the village and reminding families about the significance of healthy relationships between home and school. I like to even say, because as much as we listened to the CDC about guidelines for all things physical with our health, the CDC has parent and family engagement guidelines. It’s even there, the science is even there behind that. So we have got to continue to market and remind our community members, remind our stakeholders that no one is alone in this work. Next slide, please.

Amanda Ensor:

So here is kind of a visual of my village and like those of you who also live or work in a small district, sometimes it can feel lonely. I’m a one man team in terms of the only family engagement specialist in my district. And I have an incredibly supportive supervisor, but she, because she’s in a small district has a billion responsibilities. So sometimes I laugh and think, I can only talk to myself so long about this. But here’s where you must dig deep and find your village. So I just briefly want to mention some of those members of my village that are critical and who have worked together to create spaces for our families and all stakeholders.

Amanda Ensor:

So we’ve partnered, the Judy Center, I have two Judy Centers in my district and working with them side-by-side especially in early childhood. They have helped me connect to the caregivers, childcare providers. So anything that you can do to reach out to those other organizations that are already providing similar services is critical. Obviously, you want to look at your community partners, your businesses, local businesses who are invested in the success of your community as well. Principals, I love this picture, “I am your principal”, because sometimes that can be overwhelming and sometimes principals have their own idea about what family engagement should look like or how to lead their village. But that partnership is still critical.

Amanda Ensor:

Teachers, educators, any staff members in buildings, custodians, bus drivers, the cafeteria ladies who work at some of my schools have been the greatest supporters in this work because they also are truly invested in the success of the children that they serve every day. And obviously, our families and whatever capacity that may be, all caregivers. And then on kind of a larger level, I have worked really hard and have some incredible partnerships in Queen Anne’s County with the National Center for Families, learning with Mac and their collaborative action for family engagement team. And then NAFSCE, utilizing larger organizations who are also invested in this work is extremely important to reach out and make those connections.

Amanda Ensor:

And then finally I put on there, and it was kind of as a joke, but the fairy godmother. And I put the fairy godmother in there because we all know in our community work, we have those one or two people that we reach out who are so well connected within the community who seem to help us make those additional connections. Sometimes those are parent leaders. Sometimes those are business leaders, but everybody needs to continue looking and finding and holding tight onto that fairy godmother. When you do this, though, when you have this village, when you create this village, it is equally as important to ensure that your village has the same vision, the same mission. So communication and connection is critical. You have to talk to one another so that everyone is helping each other and lifting each other up in this work. Next slide, please.

Amanda Ensor:

So with that being said, I want to talk about some of the things that are so critical for the vision and mission of this work, and some of the real true ideas that the foundation of my village lives by. One of them, and I’ve heard this word said numerous times today by other speakers and especially during our keynote this morning is about being intentional. So I love the idea, being intentional is the new hustle, right? Because lots of us are filled with good intentions, but are we truly intentional about growing and raising children who are loved unconditionally, who are resourceful and who are creative and independent thinkers. So we have to be intentional about learning about those families in our schools. It’s one thing to make that initial connection, but we must engage intentionally in conversations that help us to start to develop an awareness of each family’s needs, preferences and prior experiences, and especially any way that they’ve been previously involved with the educational community, because it is very different for everyone. We have to be intentional and embrace family expertise and contributions, because what we need families to understand is that they all have a place in our schools and can contribute in some way. So again, this is truly when our purpose and partnership shines through is when we are intentional in our work. Next slide, please.

Amanda Ensor:

So I know this is a saying, but really, truly, this is our chance to start off on the right foot. And the right foot is considering what students need right now. I’m going to get into this in just a minute, but one of the things, I just sent another letter home to some of our families, reminding them that the most significant adults in a child’s life on a day-to-day basis are immediate family or caregivers and their teachers. So do we, as educators, do we, as family leaders, do we, as community leaders, do we truly understand what this means? These are the adults that our children spend the most time with. So we always talk about there’s not enough time in this world, but this is the gift of time. So we have to monopolize how that time is spent, how these adults in these children’s lives are influencing them by their actions and words. So starting off on the right foot, what do we need to do? Next slide, please.

Amanda Ensor:

Like I said before, our focus must be beyond communication to the ultimate goal of connection. And if any of you are familiar with Berne Brown’s work, “Connection is the energy that is created between people when they feel seen, heard, and valued, and when they can give and receive without judgment.” And I truly think that is the foundation for this work. Do our families feel seen, heard, and valued? Have we given them the opportunity to give and receive without judgment? When we consider this communication, we must think about how we are communicating with our families. How are we communicating with each other? How are we communicating with our students? This goes back to what is that number that we’re supposed to call to find this village? We have learned that we can’t assume that families are receiving or understanding the information we shared. So we’ve got to figure out are we providing total village access?

Amanda Ensor:

So one of the things Queen Anne’s County is really focusing on is that access. We need to ensure that we are communicating with families in a way that gives them all equitable access. So that requires a little bit of investigation, right? Identifying those barriers and asking upfront, “Hey, what is your preferred method of communication? Again, what do you need to make this partnership work?” And we must also be sure that this is happening for all of our families. Remember, they all must be seen, heard, and valued. Next slide, please.

Amanda Ensor:

So this is one of the most exciting things for me, the projects I’ve been working on with a Title I school and across the district is our back-to-school, I wish my child’s teacher knew talks or chats. So really looking in changing that traditional meet-and-greet or back-to-school model. So the idea behind this is to spend time, if any of you have ever attended a meet-and-greet or a traditional back-to-school, it’s a lot of talking at parents or parents talking to each other, or students seeing who they’re sitting next to, or parents kind of waiting lingering back behind a teacher wanting to share with them something about their child, but the actual productive part of that visit doesn’t always happen because it’s very surface level.

Amanda Ensor:

So these, “I wish my child’s teacher knew talk” is going to be much a designated time where the child’s teacher will determine the best way date, time, method to connect with the family. And the conversation we want is an opportunity for the teachers to better understand the family’s wishes, hopes, dreams, fears, and concerns for their child. In doing this, they will have a chance to really create the foundation for this partnership. Now, teachers in this too will have to listen, right? This is their time to listen. One of the things, we’ve sent out a guide to families on some things they can think about sharing with their child’s teacher, whether it’s strengths, likes, dislikes, challenges, things going on at home, major changes in their lives.

Amanda Ensor:

And then we also developed seven kind of essential questions for teachers to ask towards the end. And I just want to mention two of those, because I think this is so important based on some of the other conversations today is asking a parent, “By next June, what do you hope your child says about his or her experience in school this year? What’s the story you hope he or she will tell?” And then also asking those families, those parents, what was your experience like in this grade and how do you remember that year of school? This is the time to connect, to change that conversation to really make it meaningful at the beginning of the year. Next slide, please.

Amanda Ensor:

I know many of you have seen this, but this is the data that matters. These are just examples of things that students have written that I wish my teacher knew, but when will we give them the opportunity? And I know as a parent, I’m a parent of an 11 and a 14 year old, a new middle schooler and a new high schooler. And I wish I could run in there and bombard those teachers with, “Hey, here’s everything I need you to know about my daughters as they start the school year.” This is the data that matters. And this is the data that will help us coordinate services and resources to truly support our families and students. Next slide, please.

Amanda Ensor:

We also know that human beings thrive on routine and habits. So one of our big pushes in Queen Anne’s County is promoting and continuing to help our families, encourage them to establish routines. And a lot of our family nights, especially as we get back to school, we’ll, once again, reinforce the significance of routines and schedules. We tried our best to do this during that COVID year when establishing a routine was really difficult, but parents needed some guidance and understanding how important that would be in their homes. And it may have been things last year, like providing tangible supports, sending out timers or a desk, a place to work, that type of thing. And some of the support team in which is the brain science behind the impact of routines about how can we make life simpler for you.

Amanda Ensor:

And one of the biggest points here is not to tell families on how to fix it or what they’re doing wrong, but it’s to talk about things that they’re already doing. So just to help them, keeping it simple, building upon things that are already happening in their homes. Children like to know what’s important as do adults, we’d like to control what we can, and we find that having routines helps everyone find balance. And also, not everybody’s routine is going to work for everyone else. But the idea of a routine helps strengthen a sense of belonging and safety. It’s predictable. It helps children and families feel secure. It helps them understand expectations, and ultimately, it helps implement social, emotional and cognitive development. Next slide, please.

Amanda Ensor:

Another big piece and conversation that we are having, I know both across the state, but as well in Queen Anne’s County is really reconsidering our data. We are working hard to put the child back in data. And this is an immensely important for your village because you must reach out and find out what does your village know about this family? What does your village know about this child? And it’s got to be a rebuilding of the system from the student up. This is if you haven’t read her work, but Shane Safir talks about street data. And that is what it is. It is built around a student’s potential and everything that we can find out about that child. And we know data is everywhere. We’re looking for that qualitative and experiential data that is asset-based. And we are looking already to find what’s right with our families, and what’s right with our children. That’s the data that’s going to tell us the most. We need to look at the data that allows us to know names, know faces and know stories. So doing some building capacity of educators this year on putting that type of data together, rather than just looking at standardized test scores and assessments. Next slide, please.

Amanda Ensor:

Also, this is so important. Are we checking on everyone? And this is critical, it was critical during the past year of remote learning and it continues to be critical because we are still exhausted and things are still uncertain and ever-changing. So we have to acknowledge that all stakeholders, all members of our village cannot pour from an empty cup. So how do we help each other take care of ourselves? And it may be as simple as just looking over to a member of your village and saying, “Hey, are you okay?” So as we push forward from one change to the next or one uncertainty to the next, we have to check on our partners, are you okay? What do you need? We have to encourage our partners to prioritize self-care. And it might be something as simple as, “Hey, what kind of downtime could you use today?” We also know that resisting all this change and resisting all these uncertainties and everything else takes way more energy, and we simply don’t have that. So we really need to focus on the here and now and on those things that we can change and that we do have an impact on, but most importantly, we need to be there for each other. We need to check on each other. Next slide.

Amanda Ensor:

So I put this up again because once again, I’m so proud of this logo created by one of my dudes, one of my parents. But we also have the Ohana, and if you’ve seen Lilo & Stitch, you know how this saying became famous, but truly, family means nobody gets left behind or forgotten. So I just want to read you very briefly to summarize our work in Queen Anne’s County the letter that we sent to our families beginning this year, “We are familiar with the ancient African proverb that says, ‘It takes a village to raise a child.’ We have learned, especially through last year’s uncertainties, this is truer than ever. And more importantly, it takes a village to educate a child. The people your children are around in their everyday lives will greatly influence who your children will grow up to be. Being part of a village helps create an incredible network and community for your child and your family. We are so glad you are part of ours. No matter how big or small, we want to be involved in your child’s life. School isn’t just for education, it’s for a strong and long lasting support system. We honor trust and rely on all members of our students’ villages. Building a relationship with each member is the key to student success.” All right, Sheila, tell us about your incredible county.

Sheila Jackson:

Wow. Thank you so much, Amanda. I want to first give her a big round of applause because she truly has the heart for this work and I enjoy always partnering with her. As she said, she’s from Queen Anne’s County on the Eastern Shore. I’m from Prince George’s County that’s right next to Washington, D.C. We have 208 schools, 136,000 students. So even though demographically, we’re different, the heart for this work for family engagement is really important to both of us. So we connect because of our passion and the work and the vision that we have for making sure that every family feels valued, every family feels invited, every staff member knows what we’re talking about when we talk about building relationships and partnerships with families. And we continue to drive that message home. So next slide please, because I am just so excited to share a little bit about Prince George’s County. And I’ll be honest with you, I’m probably more of a nerd than Amanda. Amanda almost had me in tears because she definitely brought home the important messages that we try to impart in the work that we lead and that we facilitate in our districts. And as Barb said before, it takes strong leadership, leadership that understands and supports this work to facilitate us being able to be successful in what we do.

Sheila Jackson:

So our wonderful superintendent, Dr. Monica Goldson is a Prince George’s County graduate herself, native. And she leads us with heart about understanding that we, as educators cannot do this work alone. We have to be joined in partnership with families. So to the best of our ability, we need to rally the entire village, both inside the school district and outside of the school district to make sure that we’re paying attention to meeting the needs of our very diverse communities. We serve urban parts of our district, suburban parts and rural parts of Prince George’s County. So we want to make sure that we can be flexible and be attentive and in tune and intentional about how we rally this village to support our families.

Sheila Jackson:

So next slide, I just want to share with you some of the things that we’ve decided to do as a district and it goes back to leadership that our CEO, [inaudible 00:38:03], I think she had about six last year, which opened up to families to have phone conversations with them in real time. We had focus group meetings. We constantly communicated with families to find out how are you doing and what do you need and what do you envision the future to be? So we came up with this plan altogether that when we reopened that we’re going to be having the majority of the students return face-to-face, but then we’re providing virtual learning programs that students could apply for in grades K to six.

Sheila Jackson:

And next slide. At the high school level, we even developed an academy which would be an online campus because we realized through our distance learning and then hybrid learning that virtual learning really worked for so many of our children. So we wanted to make sure that we continued to keep that offer available, and that decision was made by village input. Again, we talked to parents, we talked to students themselves, we talked to our business partners and everyone in the school system, the staff as well, and created these opportunities to make learning assessable for all of our students, regardless of what their needs were.

Sheila Jackson:

So next slide. Just quickly, I lead the department of Family and School Partnerships, and I’m probably the cheerleader for the school system about collaboration. My department is small, Amanda is one person and I have a department of myself and three, so serving 208 schools, that’s a heavy lift. But it’s one that’s really fueled by our passion and our commitment to make sure that … We have those individuals that are out there that are preaching to everyone about the importance of this work. So our small department, and you can click to the next slide, I just shared information about some of the things that we do, one of the things driven by, actually, NAFSCE and MAEC, and especially Dr. Karen Mapp in a Dual Capacity Framework, we want to make sure that we provide the skill development, the training that’s needed for both families and for staff to build those partnerships that could be effective and meaningful and impactful.

Sheila Jackson:

So we developed what we call “our family institute”, someone had asked a question about that earlier about what kind of training do we provide for educators themselves? And we want to make sure that we put, as part of the village, we pull in experts from other departments outside of the school system to talk to our parents, to talk to our educators about, “This is what our data is saying that is needed in our communities.” And let’s shape our programs or our initiatives to make sure that we’re filling the gaps, and nobody is falling through the cracks in our district. Next slide.

Sheila Jackson:

We also like to talk with, like Amanda said, we have to have conversations with parents and families and students, and we have to listen. So it’s not always that one way where we do presentations, it’s an opportunity to invite families in, to have focus groups and to share with them, “These are things that we know that are happening. These are some suggestions that we’ve come up with. But tell us, tell your school district what it is that you need us to do so that we can make sure that what we provide is relevant and meaningful.” One of the biggest barriers nationally that we see for family engagement is that a lot of our initiatives are created, concede and try be carried out by school staff without family input. So it’s not relevant. And we wonder why they don’t come. Well a lot of times people don’t come because what we designed didn’t include their input. So we want to make sure that, again, and Amanda spoke to it so well that we are listening, we’re being inclusive so that we can get their input. Next slide.

Sheila Jackson:

One of my community partners, and I will say that, I just said it, I said, “They’re my community partners. They’re our community partners.” But people in my district know me, I will go to every office and ask, “What are you doing to help us engage our families effectively?” And so my presentation is about men. I have been to these offices and said, “Tell me what you’re doing. Show me what you’re doing. Let me advise or coach on what we’re doing to make sure that we’re meeting the needs of all of our families.” So our department of communications and community engagement is my partner. They are part of the village that not only makes decisions, but gets input from families about what is it that you need, how do you need to hear it? And making sure that things are translated. Making sure that we have interpretation services available at every and any meeting that is being held and finding the funding to do that because that’s often a barrier for districts that cannot afford to have interpretation services. We want to make sure that we are having those conversations, so when the budgets are being planned, this is one of the strengths that we need to make sure are highlighted.

Sheila Jackson:

Another partner on the next slide that is part of our village is our department of student services. And if you could click for us, these are the individuals who really look at all of the services that families may need and look at how we can support them to provide the individuals or the resources that family needs. So we know from our data that’s looking at social, emotional learning that we’re going to need a great deal of mental health support going forward. We have needed it, the last, what is it, 16, 18 months. We’ve needed mental health support for students, for families and for teachers. So this year, we’re going to have 140 therapists spread across our district just making sure that we have the services available to support those who are in need. You can click again.

Sheila Jackson:

The department of student services is really helping us because we all suffered with our attendance rates during a virtual distance and hybrid learning. So we have a big push, and again, it’s many of us working together, many departments having the same language. I’m one of those people who promote one band, one sound, we all need to be promoting the same language and the same message. And this is our latest one, it’s not in to be out of school. We need all of our students to return, no matter how you return, if it’s virtual, if it’s whatever, we want you, we want you back. So that has been our big push going forward. We’ve been on it all summer and it will continue throughout the next year as well, because we need all of the supports and all of the support providers working together.

Sheila Jackson:

The next member of my village is my department of special education, and Amanda spoke to this. Making sure that families who have children who may have special needs or who are differently gifted are supported, that they feel that we want to support them and provide all of the resources that they need. So providing tips, providing guidance, providing resources and connections, whether it’s The Family Center of Maryland, whether it’s Family Support Center, making sure that every family knows that they’re not in this alone and that we can make sure that we equip families, equip parents who sometimes internalize and think that maybe my child’s special need is my fault. We are working very hard to let parents know they’re not alone and we are their partners in helping them help their children as well.

 

Sheila Jackson:

My next partner that I have to shout out and I know they’re here today is Department of Title I and ESSA who year round is working to engage families and encourage family participation in the lives of their children, as well as in helping with overall school improvement. So already, they’re hitting the ground already. They’ve had summer school, but now they’re running summer learning family workshops that start in August that are going to be done every two weeks to make sure that families are ready to support their children, and that they have all of the skills that they need to make everything come together for their child.

Sheila Jackson:

We also have community schools and I’m so excited, so you excuse me if I’m talking quickly. I am just so excited about all of the members of our village, because we come together, we meet, we talk about and reinforce each other’s goals and each other’s visions and talk about how do we support each other, not working competition. Sometimes in large districts, people are fighting for survival. My job is to work myself out of a job. So anything that I have, any resources or information that I have, it’s my job to share it and communicate and build partnerships with other offices so that we are stronger as we work together. So we have a wonderful office of community schools. And I know from some of the districts that I’ve looked into the chat there are just so many of our districts across the state and across the region that do have community schools initiatives going. And the community schools, as you all know, provide those wraparound services. And it’s part of our responsibility no matter what our office is in our district, to make sure that we connect and provide additional resources to those schools. Or the schools that are not community schools, help them develop the capacity to become, I call them a quasicommunity school. Every school has the power to go out and harness the community resources that are near them. Next slide.

Sheila Jackson:

So those are some of the things community schools are doing. They’re embracing Ready 4K, which has been part of MAC. The next slide. They’re also reaching out for a program that’s called Leveling the Playing Field where they provide physical education equipment and even food at no charge to schools. But it’s, again, asking people in leadership positions to expand your thinking, open your mind and open your heart to embrace our partners in our village. Next one. One of the partners that has really been impactful for us is our overall county government. We have a local management board that I know every county does. And the members of the local management board have adopted schools that they serve, and we talk and meet with them because I’m one of those people that say, “You’re doing it in that neighborhood, can you do it in this one too?” And just ask. And that’s what a lot of our partners in the community tell us, “We appreciate you asking, because a lot of times educators don’t ask.” And we’ve got to ask our partners and government, what they can do.

Sheila Jackson:

And just like the next slide is about, our faith-based partners. Asking them as well … And I’m sorry, I skipped it. Oh, we’re talking about the County Library System. I’m part of the state’s technology team that looks at how are our libraries working as part of the village. So a lot of our libraries have stepped up and maybe stepped beyond what some of our school districts are doing. They’re doing things like providing Chromebooks 2Go, WiFi, hotspots that people can check out just like you check out a library book. And we have to know these things so that we can let our communities know that these are partners in our village that can help us as well.

Sheila Jackson:

So then, I want to tell you about our faith-based partners because in our county, and probably like a lot of yours, there’s a church on every corner. So it’s been important for us to make sure that we’ve made inroads and having conversations with our faith-based partners to talk about partnerships. Many of them have adopted schools and at this summer, they’re collecting backpacks and school supplies that they’re going to give to the schools that they’ve adopted. And they’ve conducted drive-throughs of meal distribution or grocery distribution. But they do it because, again, villagers we ask, we ask our members of our villages to please work with us, please support us, please tell us what we can do to better support you as well. And so, again, it’s a great honor to work in a position that gets to see how all of us can come together. I love it. Amanda talked about, it Ohana? Ohana, family, we’re all a part of a family that has to be here in support of our children.

Sheila Jackson:

I just want to share one last thing because I just found out about it on the next slide because we’ve really worked hard to provide network services for all of our families. We actually were named the number one digital county in the United States. And we were delighted about that because you all know how hard that was in engaging children who were suddenly forced into distance learning, whose parents were suddenly forced to be co-teachers. So being able to step out there and find the resources, that was the work of the village, that was a lot of people coming together and putting their heads together to say, “How can we not come together on this, because we’ve got to support our children.”

Sheila Jackson:

So I’m just so excited. I think it’s important for us to acknowledge our opportunities to lead and to help all of those around us. I’m talking quickly, Amanda, because I want to bring you back in and we want to get to hopefully answer some questions. But I just want to, in closing, just some final reminders. Next slide. To just begin to think about as we close out think about, and Amanda talked about a lot of this in the beginning. What are those many, many … What are the multiple ways … what’s the myriad of ways that families can receive information? A lot of times, we rely on what’s class dojo. We rely on maybe one or two mechanisms. We have to think about all the different ways that families can be engaged and they can receive information. Everybody has a cell phone, but do we connect with families in that way? Amanda talked about marketing, that we have to make sure that we send out our messages in multiple languages. And that we know what household needs what language support. Very important. Next slide.

Amanda Ensor:

So a couple other final tips from Sheila as well, again, going over some things. Sheila, your village is absolutely incredible, I have to say. You can come spread it across the Chesapeake Bay and the Queen Anne’s County as well. So again, really looking at the idea of building trust and intentional trust, authentic trust with families, between families. This has to do with the culture we create in our schools, in our communities, creating that space where our families can be seen, heard, and valued. The next final tip we have is using that growth mindset language. And really this is, again, I know it’s been mentioned in the chat many times today, finding those funds of knowledge, looking at strength-based approaches and expertise, because we know that different people are good at different things, and it takes everyone. So really relying on that and using the language that is setting that expectation of success. My favorite three letter word is the word yet. And every family that I work with, “Well, I don’t know how to do that.” And I always say, “Yet.” I used to do it with my fourth graders, but guess what? It works with our families as well. Sheila?

Sheila Jackson:

Thank you, Amanda. Next slide. And Amanda, in true partnership fashion, I’m going to do one bullet, you do a bullet, I’ll do another one. And then we’ll end, or maybe that wasn’t. But here we go. So we talked a lot today about creativity. We really have to, I love how Amanda said it, dig deep. And it’s like in football, you have to go wide and you got to go deep, to be creative about how families can connect with each other. Because it’s important, that’s how a lot of families survived the last 18 months, they built relationships with other families who were going through the same thing at the same time.

Amanda Ensor:

Right. And don’t limit the number of who arrive if it doesn’t meet expectations. I think this is so critical. We get so hyper-focused on who wasn’t there and who didn’t do that and who didn’t do this, etc. But we really, really need to celebrate those who did attend or those who were engaged or who were involved and continue to build those deeper relationships with those few. Because honestly, that’s how it spreads, that’s how the wildfires begin. When one, it’s that peer-to-peer support, it’s those family relationships, those community relationships, so we really need to celebrate our successes along the way.

Sheila Jackson:

And then lastly, just as our gurus are to Karen Mapp and Henderson, Sherry Wilson, [inaudible 00:58:04], we have to connect what we’re doing to engage families to student learning and behavior. That is the thing. I remember being that parent, that if you connected those meetings to what I can do to better help my child, whether it was academics, whether it was their social, emotional development, then you got me hooked. And we have to remember that, whatever we are providing for families, we have to make sure that it’s connected to content and student behavior so that they can be the well-rounded individuals. I used to joke all the time, my kids got to marry somebody one day, so I want all kids developed well. And we have to make sure we provide what every child needs. So thank you all so much for your attention.

Amanda Ensor:

And with that, Sheila too, it’s that relevance factor, right? How is this relevant to them at home? How is this relevant to them in their daily life, their daily routines? And then, why will this be important in their future?

Sheila Jackson:

Thank you. So on that note, we’ll turn back to Barb and thank you all for your attention. Thank you so much for your comments in the chat box. We really appreciate it.

Barb Scherr:

Thank you, Amanda. Thank you, Sheila. I think if we were in-person, there would be a standing ovation. What an excellent presentation with such great strategies that you talked about and sharing your village and how you connect. I just want to share some of the comments that were in the chat and from [Shay 00:59:51] where talking about strategies as teachers to connect with family members, sort of getting to know your village, their children and staying connected, Shay commented, “To use those strategies and conversations that could perhaps be measurable action items for this school year to give a structured focus on engagement.” So true. Something that can be so simple and to see how we are really looking at our strategies of how we are connecting with our families, collaborative decision-making builds a stronger village. It sure does.

 

Barb Scherr:

Amanda added, “Including students at the secondary level about their own learning needs is an incredible strategy.” Absolutely. We need all voices in the work that we’re doing and ultimately to support the success of our students. Some of the words I captured as both Amanda and Sheila were presenting that to me really just resonated with me, transparency, consistency, listening, learning. And I thought listening is learning. Learning is listening. Intentionality. Equitable access. Lead with the heart. One band, one sound. I love that. And right away, I thought about Al Jarreau, he sings about that, We’re in This Love Together. We are in this work together, so we have to have a mind that we’re all working in this work to support our students. Having an open mind and heart to embrace our families in our village. There is a question, it’s so exciting to hear about these villages, how do we ignite the fire in our county to get the support from our county school systems leadership? Sheila, Amanda, do you want to grab that.

Sheila Jackson:

I will join, but Amanda please, I will just speak from personal experience. It takes a few dedicated, loud parents to keep going to the board of education meetings, to keep it in front of people all the time how important this work is. I want to be engaged, my good friend in Montgomery County stole the title to my book, “You see me knocking, but I can’t come in.” We have a lot of parents that want to be engaged, they are knocking at the door. Sometimes they have to keep knocking at the door, but we as educators have to support them. We have to encourage them. As a parent, before I started working in the school system, it was educators who encouraged me to stand up for what I know is right for children. And those voices, those advocacy voices are what change the political people into hearing us and to seeing how important this work is. Amanda, you say something because I’m going to get people in trouble. Okay.

Amanda Ensor:

So I like to laugh at this, sometimes I think when people see me coming, they think, “Oh gosh, here she comes again.” But I also like to think that when they see me coming, they say, “Here comes the sun.” Which is my mantra. So it’s about the spirit, energy, enthusiasm and things that you bring to the work. This shouldn’t be an additional task or chore or anything else, but it’s that excitement that you bring to this work. And I honestly think, if I had only known all of this when I was a classroom teacher, if someone had had this position, this position was created, I’m the first person in this position in my district, and I only wish someone had been knocking at my door reminding me of these things. So for me, it’s about bringing the sunshine, reminding them that this is only going to make life better, this is going to make things easier for every member of the village, and that to really spread that sunshine throughout the village, because that’s what keeps it going.

Barb Scherr:

And also, one of the things I always say is if you don’t A-S-K, you don’t G-E-T. It never hurts to ask. So we always have to leverage one another, leverage your resources, leverage the people you know and as Amanda said, keep knocking on those doors. And I love the comment from our partners in New Jersey, and I apologize if I say your last name incorrectly, [Dr. Shabis 01:04:32], “Teamwork makes the dream work.” And how true that statement is. Yup, And Here Comes The Sun. So between [inaudible 01:04:45] and Here Comes The Sun, I think we’re going to have some songs in our heads this afternoon.

Sheila Jackson:

Thank you all. And again, we can’t be afraid of this work. Our children are counting on us. So we have to step out there and be courageous and do it. I just did an activity with my class that I’m teaching about what is your power song? What is it that encourages you? And so put it on the radio and play it, and then let’s get to work because we need to encourage each other.

Barb Scherr:

And Sheila, congratulations to you and your county for being recognized as number one in the work you’re doing around digital learning, again, it takes that village It takes everybody working together to support our kids. Anyone want to throw any comments or additional questions into the chat, a lot of great shout outs to both Amanda and Sheila for the great work that you’re doing and sharing your village.

Amanda Ensor:

I also want to throw out, please don’t hesitate to reach out because I want to mention that my very first professional development I ever attended about family engagement was led by Dr. Sheila Jackson. And three years later, here I am presenting by her side. So I have to say that this is the type of workshop, connections, people we meet, this summit is what allows us to expand our village beyond state lines, beyond county lines, regional lines, whatever it is. So don’t hesitate to reach out, even if all you need is a little pep talk because like Kid President says, “Sometimes we just need a little pep talk.”

Barb Scherr:

And there is another comment, “Thank you for a meaningful discussion with well, informative tools and resources to share and remind ourselves with what to do with our parents, students, and our community to make the village successful. Sometimes we need to go slow in order to go fast, and it takes one person at a time connecting to build the village.” And there was a request for contact information. Amanda, if you want to throw your contact information in the chat as well, that would be great.

Amanda Ensor:

Sure.

Barb Scherr:

And if there are resources of surveys that you have, again, I would reach out to both Sheila and Amanda, and I’m sure they’ll be happy to share their resources with you. How wonderful, Mary Beth Johnson, “Great job ladies. Thank you for sharing. I’m a resident of Queen Anne’s County and proud of it.” Yay. That’s awesome. Thank you. I encourage you all, we are one big village, we are one big community and we are in this work together, we are resources for one another. We can leverage each other for our knowledge, funds of knowledge, I love that. We all bring different levels of expertise, backgrounds, and it’s just so important to connect with one another as we expand our village.

Barb Scherr:

If we have no other questions, we’ll can give another minute. I think we can give you back some time in your afternoon, which is a gift. And Claire or Mira, is there any information about the evaluation?

Claire Ruhlman:

Yeah. Thanks so much. I’m going to take it from here if that’s okay.

Barb Scherr:

Sure.

Claire Ruhlman:

So again, thank you so much to our presenters, our moderator, and our interpreters, and thank all for participating in our How to Build a Village Workshop and the 2021 Maryland Family Engagement Summit. If you would like more information or resources on the subjects you heard today, please connect with the larger Maryland family engagement community on social media, using the handle MDEngageEarly, and I can go ahead and put that in the chat. And then, also as Barb was saying, we would greatly appreciate if you would take the time to fill out a brief survey, evaluating the session you attended today. Here’s the QR code on the screen, and I’ll put the link in the chat shortly. Please be sure to choose the how to build a village options in the dropdown menu in the first question. Thanks again, and enjoy the rest of your Thursday afternoons.