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Community Engagement

Shaping our schools' future with word bubbles

Takeaways on Community Engagement:
All stakeholders recognize the negative narratives around Kent County Public Schools. While communications have greatly improved, there were additional opportunities noted. Community volunteers was another leading topic, as well getting information out to those without students in the school system.

Volunteer working outside with students

The Conversations

What we asked about Community Engagement
  • How do you get your news about Kent County Public Schools?
  • How do you feel the school can improve communication and involvement with families and the wider community? 
  • What kinds of events, programs or partnerships would you like to see to increase community engagement with our school?
  • How can Kent County Public Schools better serve the community outside of school hours?
  • You’ve talked about a lot of other subjects related to education at our tables tonight, how can some of the issues you’ve discussed be addressed through community engagement and public relations?

Stakeholders were provided with the following information
Telling our story
  • The Kent County Public Schools website: www.kent.k12.md.us
  • Our free KCPS mobile app
  • The KCPS Facebook and Instagram pages
  • Social media pages for various schools and departments
  • Our own high school radio station 90.5 FM WKHS (wkhsradio.org)
  • Press releases shared with local media outlets
  • Direct family contact through mass calls, emails and texts
  • Community meeting

Volunteering
Kent County Public Schools welcomes volunteers through a variety of programs helping students achieve success. Volunteers provide mentoring, homework help and hands-on learning. Learn more: kent.k12.md.us/Volunteers.aspx.

Something to think about ...
How can we best reach families and the broader Kent County community?

Something to keep in mind ...
The media landscape has gone through a major shift in the last 10 years, so we have to keep exploring new ways of telling our story!

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Stakeholder Sentiments

Heart-shaped word cloud. See comments below.

Leading Discussion Topics
  • News sources: Families use more direct connections and social media; news organizations suffering from decreased readership among families; older residents are out of touch with schools
  • Challenge negative narratives, highlight the positive, staff should not be spreading negativity to the public, engage community stakeholders to share positivity
  • Providing evening events: parent nights so they can better help students with math and literacy work, community celebrations, visual and performing arts showcases, etc.
  • Include incentives for family information nights like dinner, child care and door prizes
  • Volunteers: create and share opportunities; volunteer coordinator; create a speakers bureau; expedited parent volunteer process; hold volunteer fairs
  • One event calendar for all schools
  • KCPS is communicating with families more than ever
  • Build more community partnerships, especially with the library
  • Find more ways to showcase students in public, participating in community (non-KCPS) events
  • Become a sponsor of established and new local events
  • Better coordination of events between schools

Questions to Answer
  • How do we coordinate and advertise volunteer opportunities?
  • How do we build and expand partnerships with colleges, organizations and businesses?
  • How do we better reach retiree population with news about our schools?
  • How do we rebuild our PTAs?
  • How do we build school spirit among students and parents?

New/Interesting Ideas 
  • Newcomer program providing consistent support
  • Turn homecoming into a huge community event with a parade, spirit week at all schools, etc.
  • Go big with a career day
  • More community fundraisers — like a community yard sale, haunted house, kickball games, bonfires, family games
  • Localize youth sports in each elementary school gym
  • Hire a fundraiser
  • We don't need more/new programs, we need problem-solvers
  • Get elementary students to high school events to build up their excitement
  • KCPS ad at the movie theater
  • Food trucks at events
  • Translators at school events
  • Community dinners
  • Adult programs including ESOL

From Our Staff

Professional Development Day Question
What are some barriers to greater community engagement with our schools and how can we remove them?

Answers Included
  • Not all families have online access: We need to make sure we can reach them with news 
  • Question-and-answer sessions with the community to share and explain our data
  • Restart programs like Muffins for Moms to bring parents back into schools
  • Set up ongoing donation and supply drives for families
  • Learn about and be open to engaging with what is working in other districts
  • Homework help for parents, like a homework hotline or video tutorials






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