Pasco, WA
Esmeralda M. Valencia, Parent Engagement Coordinator
Kassy Valdez, Parent Partnership Coordinator
Lorraine Landon, Special Programs Coordinator
Enhanced Communication: Kick It Up a Notch!
Pasco School District continued its remarkable record of Partnership District Awards. All schools in the district have Action Teams for Partnerships (ATPs). All teams write annual plans, evaluate progress, and implement activities to engage all students’ families. The district serves over 70% Latino families—mainly in economically stressed communities.
This year Pasco’s leaders for partnerships worked to help all schools use print and audio media to increase all parents’ awareness that their schools have active and inclusive partnership programs, and to encourage all schools to communicate clearly with all students’ parents about their importance as partners in their children’s education.
Terrific Trifolds. District leaders for partnerships distributed trifold display boards to every school’s Action Team for Partnerships (ATP) to showcase their partnership programs—pictorially, graphically, and creatively. The ATPs got the message. They decorated their trifolds with school colors, mascots, event photos, ATP meeting dates, volunteer opportunities, and their schedule of partnership activities for the school year. Some schools posted QR codes for families to link to the school’s website, teachers, and administrators. One school added a video recording of the principal’s welcome message in English and in Spanish. District leaders collected all schools’ trifolds twice during the year to display at key district meetings. (( to share the breadth and scope of elementary, middle, and high schools’ activities to engage all students’ families as partners in education.
Awesome Audio Message. District leaders and school teams worked with the district’s Community Outreach Supervisor and a local radio station DJ to write and produce an audio recording about the work of school-based ATPs. The result—a clear 60-second message in English and in Spanish—is a conversation between a teacher and parent about the work of school-based ATPs. Last year, the recording was aired more than 60 times on local English, Spanish, and bilingual radio stations. Now, the recording can be used by every school on its website, phone, ClassDojo, and other communication platforms. District leaders estimate that about 12,000 parents and other family and community partners benefitted from both the visual and audio communications on the work of schools’ ATPS.
Read more about Enhanced Communication: Kick It Up a Notch! in Promising Partnership Practices 2023.
