The school district was recognized by District Administration magazine
Battling low on-site attendance and hoping to up the number of parents of middle school students who were participating in important discussions, administrators in the Washington Township Public Schools decided to take the information sessions to the parents. The district’s efforts recently earned a District of Distinction award from the editors of “District Administration” magazine.
“Districts of Distinction is a national recognition program created by District Administration magazine to honor school districts that are leading the way with new ideas that work,” Editorial Director JD Solomon wrote in his letter of congratulations. “We selected your initiative because it is yielding quantifiable benefits, and could be replicated by your peers in other districts.”
In a collaborative process developed in 2016, WTPS launched Middle School Parent Information Nights by live streaming on-site events through Google Hangouts. The sessions, which involved principals, interventionists and the director of secondary education, also were recorded and uploaded to YouTube for those who physically could not attend.
EventBrite, a web-based event organizer, connected the audience with content, and families, who were emailed an EventBrite hyperlink through the district’s messaging system, could select the sessions and contents which held the most interest for them.
“Attracting parental attention and input through cyberspace proved to be not only cutting-edge but beneficial to both the district and our parents,” said Director of Secondary Education Steve Gregor, who was instrumental in bringing the computer-assisted conversations to fruition. “Parents now can sign up for workshops that are of interest to them. They report feeling more informed and are requesting topics of interest, such as presentations on anti-bullying. We recognized families are faced with ever-increasing demands on their times. This initiative allows us to maintain crucial contact with our parents, increase our participation rate and provide useful information in an efficient and accessible way.”
