District proposes family-engagement walkthrough pilot at West Elementary with outside partners

Spearfish School District staff presented a proposed 16-month cooperative agreement with Black Hills Special Services and the State Family Engagement Center to run a family-engagement pilot at West Elementary beginning with invitations in mid-February and a family walkthrough on April 30.

The district said the project will pair a qualitative research component and parent-perception surveys with action planning. The presenter said the team will invite 24 families with a goal of a working subgroup of about 15 families and collect the same pre- and post‑test data so results can be compared. The district plans letters to families to go out February 13 and aims for a report back by June following the April 30 walkthrough.

The presenter framed the pilot as aligned with the district Title I goals for K–5 family engagement and the district’s 2021–2026 strategic plan. He said the walkthrough will use metrics from Black Hills Special Services and the State Family Engagement Center to evaluate factors ranging from facility signage and parking to multilingual access to school materials, with the goal of identifying actionable steps that do not impose undue fiscal strain.

Board members asked about whether other districts had run similar processes and whether the district had tested the survey instruments. The presenter said he contacted several districts and that feedback ranged from affirming current practices to identifying gaps in multilingual family engagement and signage; he said parents’ perceptions are their reality and emphasized anonymity and opt-out options for participants.

The presenter said staff expect the process to be labor intensive but “no cost to the district” for the research partner; he added the district might later seek a fiscal grant to offset staff workload if necessary. He said not all findings will be feasible to implement and that priorities will be selected so the district is not left with a list of unaffordable requests.

Board discussion included clarifying that the pilot would begin after winter assessments to avoid survey fatigue, that the subgroup work is intended to inform building improvement plans presented next fall, and that outcomes could be replicated at other schools if successful.

The presentation closed with staff saying the pilot is intended to build parental capacity to support learning, not merely to increase attendance at school events.