Engaging parents

Alexis Barker
NLJ News Editor
 
Changes are happening at the middle school level in Weston County School District No. 1 thanks to a parent advisory council that school principal Tyler Bartlett created at the beginning of the year. 
“We want to use them to get ideas and we are getting really good feedback,” Bartlett said. 
According to Bartlett, during the back to school night he announced that he was looking to start the parent advisory council, and had more than 20 parents express interest in involvement. So far this year, the council has discussed several topics through email and some of the ideas and changes they have suggested are being implemented. 
“Something that is a direct result of that council is changes to the way we do parent- teacher conferences,” Bartlett said. 
He explained that the school will now be providing refreshments, thanks to Woody’s Food Center. The school will also have additional seating set up for parents to use while waiting to get to their student’s teachers. 
“Four to eight is a tough time, especially for parents who have multiple kids,” Bartlett said, noting that sometimes parents are at parent teacher conferences for hours. “It is going to be more welcoming this way.” 
Another idea developed with the help of the parent advisory council is a raffle for parents who visit all of their child’s teachers, and the book fair, during conferences. 
“It is a Bingo type raffle. Teachers will mark off their square on the card and we will have the book fair in the gym that night, so it is closer to the action,” Bartlett said. “If parents get all their squares marked off they will go into a drawing for three prizes, each a large pizza donated by Isabella’s.”
Also located on the card are suggested talking points to help parents get the most out of their conference time. 
“Sometimes parents don’t know what to say or ask while visiting with the teachers and this card will provide some conversation starters to help the process,” Bartlett said. 
The parent advisory council, according to Bartlett, has also shared their opinion on some fun, and sometimes-controversial topics, including Halloween dress up for middle school students. 
“They were all very honest and a majority of them said let the kids be kids,” Bartlett said. “So, we are going to try it. We have sent out information on dress code restrictions for Halloween and we are planning some other fun activities.” 
Bartlett said that the overall goal with the parent advisory council is to get parents in the doors and get more involvement from parents of middle school students. 
“It has really benefited us so far. We have gotten ideas that we didn’t have before and this is a good example of what can happen when you let more people get involved,” Bartlett said. “We are excited.”