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District awards inaugural 'Welcoming Schools' microgrants to six schools
Summary
Wichita Public Schools announced six recipients of an inaugural Welcoming Schools microgrant program aimed at improving school communication, facilities and family engagement; principals described planned projects and the family‑engagement office said it will continue listening work with families.
At the May 5 Board of Education meeting the district announced recipients of its inaugural Welcoming Schools microgrant program, an initiative of the Family and Community Engagement team to improve school welcoming environments.
Staff member who introduced the item (identified in the meeting as Wendy) described the microgrant as an outgrowth of a “6 keys to success” family‑engagement framework and said the application process yielded 14 applicants; six schools were selected.
Nut graf: The microgrants are intended to help schools make facilities more family friendly, improve communications (including home languages), and expand family‑engagement activities that connect families to academic supports and community services.
Who was selected and planned uses
Wendy introduced leaders from the selected schools and highlighted planned activities. Examples offered by Coleman Middle School principal Karen Waterman Overgaard included improving multilingual written and oral communications, creating welcoming waiting areas and dedicated family‑meeting spaces, and strengthening outreach for a recently added newcomer program. Other named recipients included Brooke Hinkle at Anderson, Camille Evans at Jefferson, Jill Pfeiffer, Laura Dreward at Riverside, Connie Redick at Curtis Middle School, and Pancho Bustos at Marshall Middle School.
The Family and Community Engagement presenter said the team will work with the leaders to convert submitted visions into funded projects, and that some proposals may be partially funded this round with additional requests to follow.
Next steps
Staff said the listening work will continue through the summer and into the fall as the program scales and as staffing transitions occur in the Family and Community Engagement office. The board received the announcement as a “good news” item; no vote was required.
