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Principals say FACES and porch visits help engagement; board asks for centralized partnership support
Summary
Elementary principals described family-engagement work—porch visits, parent plans, FACES coordinators—and asked the district to centralize vendor/partner lists and professional development to help FACES staff scale successes across schools.
Elementary principals told the board that family engagement is a district priority and that FACES coordinators have helped strengthen relationships with families, citing porch visits and front-office responsiveness as successful strategies.
Why it matters: Strong family engagement supports attendance, behavior and learning. Principals said building a culture of involvement must be distributed across staff, not left solely to FACES coordinators.
What principals said: Brett Bernard, Emerson Elementary principal, said engagement is a daily priority and described porch visits and a stable, invested FACES coordinator who lived in the community and helped build trust. He said, “Day 1 when we come to school, our plan in that day is how do we engage families?”
Jerry Cunningham and others said principals incorporate parent plans and front-office practices to keep family communication open. Board members praised the porch-visit practice and urged principals and central staff to document what works so it can be replicated districtwide.
Central supports requested: Middle- and high-school principals asked for a central list of vetted community partners and vendors (food, speakers, mentoring, enrichment) that FACES coordinators could contact. Dr. Ashford Collins suggested a curated list of community partners and cautioned against vendors whose primary aim is selling services; principals favored partners that offer low-cost, sustainable programming.
Professional development and coordination: Several principals said centralized training and coaching for FACES coordinators—already begun by the district welcome center—has improved results; they asked for that onboarding and PD to continue as the elementary cluster phases in FACES roles.
Ending: The board asked central staff to gather examples of strong family-engagement models used in-district and by partner organizations, to share a list of recommended partners and to continue cluster-based supports for FACES coordinators so the program can scale.
