Family & Community Engagement

Parent leaders in some schools have formed volunteer teams or groups of parents to support the school or particular grades or classrooms. Contact the Family Engagement team at your school to learn how you can join or contribute as a parent volunteer.

 See the information below.

The DPAC meets with the Receiver/Superintendent every month to provide input and receive updates on the district’s turnaround process. Information obtained at these meetings is shared with parents at their schools. Contact our department to learn who represents the schools at these meetings.  View our meeting schedule and join us! | (En Español).

HPS welcomes parents’ feedback, questions, and recognition for our staff by contacting our school leaders or the Family & Community Engagement Department.

We encourage families to establish regular communication with school leaders and explore all possibilities to contribute to student success at the school level. We recognize sometimes families feel dissatisfied after having worked with teachers and school leaders to resolve a particular situation related to their child, which leads them to want to raise their concerns to the school district office.  If there are issues that remain unresolved at the school level, you may file a written complaint form with the Director of Family & Community Engagement at the Student Enrollment & Family Empowerment Center or with the Student Services Coordinator at the Department of Pupil Services.

Holyoke Public Schools is committed to responding to parent concerns and complaints in a timely manner in order to strengthen the school-family partnership and keep students engaged in school.

If you have concerns about issues related to school-based operations, please contact the school principal or the Student Enrollment & Family Empowerment Center at 413-534-2000 Extension 1100.

Holyoke Early Learning Initiative (HELI) is a citywide effort founded in 2013 that brings schools, families and community partners together to dramatically improve the reading proficiency of our youngest children. Everyone is being asked to do something and we all have something to do to reach our GOAL: rapid and sustained improvement in reading proficiency by the 3^rd grade. As a coalition, we have deployed multiple strategies that are proving successful, from engaging families with children from 0-8 years old in early literacy practices, to strengthening the program designs of literacy programs across the city and developing citywide collaborative workgroups.

We want more families to join HELI and increase the frequency of what they do at home to support their child’s literacy. We invite and support parents to do “One Thing a Day” to help boost your child’s literacy skills!

Please contact our department or Family Engagement staff at your school to learn how to join a HELI Parent Group in your school or to get tips and tools for literacy activities you can start doing with your child at home.

We welcome opportunities to engage with community partners and participate in community events or neighborhood meetings across the city where we can meet and talk to families.  Please contact our department if you would like HPS to join your event or make a presentation on a particular topic.

HPS also welcomes partnership opportunities in support of student learning and our families. Please contact us to learn about our strategic priorities and current initiatives and how we may work together.