Sara Stadem | Editor
The participants for the second cohort of Family Engagement Champions has been announced by the South Dakota Statewide Family Engagement Center (SDSFEC) and two local teachers from the Tri-Valley School District, Casey Elder and Keeley Kotula, are on the list.
Elder is the Elementary English Language Learning (ELL) instructor and Kotula is the Junior High ELL instructor. Most schools apply in teams of two, Kotula explained, so after getting permission from administration, they applied online together. “Tri-Valley this year had the honor of being accepted to participate. Only 15 schools were accepted and some were turned away,” Kotula stated.”
Kotula explained the SDSFEC is a completely virtual “center” that provides families and educators with resources and support with the intent to better strengthen the relationship between schools and the families that they serve. She further explained the center was created because of a grant provided from the Federal Department of Education.
The Cohort of Family Engagement Champions is a learning opportunity for school employees that is organized and provided by the SDSFEC, according to Kotula. In addition to teachers, cohort also includes principals, school counselors, program directors and more.
“When I applied to be in the cohort, I explained that my school is experiencing a surge in diversity and is experiencing some barriers in communication and participation with parents and guardians,” Kotula said. She continued, “I stated that I would like to break down those barriers and learn strategies to get all guardians involved. I’m not sure what the SDSFEC was looking for in an applicant, but I am happy for the opportunity to learn new strategies and expand my mindset.”
According to Kotula, they are provided a set of textbooks and sent homework which needs to be done before each meeting. During the first meeting, they evaluate the level of open communication and collaboration that Tri-Valley has with their community. They discuss what family engagement means to them and complete group projects that presented ideas from their textbooks to the rest of the group.
From there, they were assigned homework which included reading from the textbook, being asked to arrange an activity with the staff members of their school that discussed community engagement and asked to assign an activity for their students that involves guardian input.
Their first cohort meeting was last month which was a seven-hour virtual class. February’s meeting will only last a few hours, then they will have an all-day virtual meeting in March, an evening virtual meeting in April, then the last meeting is a seven hour, in-person class that will take place in Pierre in June.
“It means the world to me that Tri-Valley has been given the opportunity to be a part of this cohort. Casey has already been working with our school’s administration to provide interpreting services for families in our ELL program, and we both are always looking for ways to ease communication, but family engagement is deeper than that and isn’t only for language barriers. For some families, getting a call from the school or an email from a teacher signals that something is wrong,” Kotula said.
Kotula concluded, “We want to take away that stigma and foster trusting relationships with the families in our district. That involves collaboration on the child’s education, the ability for families to give input and feeling welcome at the school. It means creating more opportunities for the guardians to be involved, ones that aren’t bake sales and donations. It also means honoring the idea that everysingle family is capable of collaboration somehow, even families that don’t have a history of involvement from the school. I am very excited to learn and grow as an educator and equally excited for the potential community impact of the cohort.”
Elder is currently on maternity leave and was not able to be reached for comment.
For more information, go to https://https://sdsfec.org/fechamps.