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ELAC members push outreach tactics as parent attendance lags; handwritten invites, raffles and time surveys suggested
Summary
ELAC delegates and parents discussed persistent low meeting turnout and shared outreach tactics — handwritten invitations, QR-code surveys, incentives and changing meeting times — to increase participation across elementary and middle schools.
Parents and ELAC officers at the Community of Multilingual Families meeting identified parent turnout as a continuing challenge and shared specific outreach tactics they said have boosted participation at some sites.
The discussion matters because less parent participation limits ELAC's ability to collect broad input for school programs, needs assessments and district accountability plans. Parents and officers pushed for practical, replicable steps schools can use before the next round of meetings.
ELAC president Lydia Castro led the conversation on attendance, saying that getting parents "here" is critical because "if the parents don't show up, our community doesn't show up, it takes away from what we can get for the children." Several parent representatives described specific strategies that produced better turnout at individual schools:
- Handwritten invitations and personalized notes: Mitchell attendees said a committee member hand-wrote invitations, put them in envelopes and reported increased replies when parents were asked "how did you hear about our meeting?"; another speaker suggested principals make phone calls to personally invite families.
- Incentives and raffles: Some schools reported success with raffle entries and small incentives tied to returned forms (teachers gave "oarslips" or raffle tickets to students whose parents completed surveys). A parent described using QR codes and prize raffles by grade to increase survey completion.
- Timing and surveys: Officers stressed that meeting times should reflect family schedules. The group recommended asking parents via the district needs-assessment survey which meeting time (morning, afternoon or evening) works best.
- Cross-site resource sharing: Parents urged schools to stop "reinventing the wheel" and to exchange materials (invitations, activity plans, certificates) so successful tactics can be reused across sites.
ELAC members asked officers to publish participation numbers and to include reminders about upcoming meetings at open houses. The group agreed to discuss meeting-time surveys at the next site-level ELAC meetings and to try several of the suggested incentives ahead of the district open-house period.
No formal motion or vote was taken; this topic was a working-group discussion and a call for follow-up action by ELAC officers and school community liaisons.
