Family & Community Engagement

Family Engagement

Each school is served by a Family Engagement point person who works to support families and schools to build and strengthen their relationship with each other, help them access information and resources, and develop their leadership and voice.

Family Empowerment

Holyoke Public Schools and Holyoke families are partners in our children’s success.  The Parent Power Academy delivers educational and informational workshops for families. These school PTO’s are encouraged to work with school leaders and the Family Engagement teams at the schools to identify key needs in the turnaround plan or in the schools where they can focus part of their efforts during the school year.

• Parent Leader Groups or Parent Volunteer Teams: 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.

 

• Districtwide Parent Advisory Council (DPAC): 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).

Community Engagement

• Parent concerns and feedback: HPS welcomes family feedback, questions, and recognition for our staff by contacting our school leaders or the Family & Community Engagement Team. 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 Enrollment staff at the Enrollment Services office or with the Student Services Coordinator at the Department of Pupil Services. Holyoke Public Schools is committed to responding to family 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.

 

• 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 3rd 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.

 

• Community outreach: 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.