Family Engagement Educators’ Team
Thank you Senator Barfoot for providing the Community Action grant in the amount of $45,000 to support Tallassee City Schools.
Imagine being faced with educating students amid a pandemic. How do you engage students and parents when the schools are on an A/B rotation or off-limits? Tallassee City Schools formed F.E.E.T., the Family Engagement Education Team, to accomplish this goal.
The Governor's Emergency Education Relief Fund -G.E.E.R provided the necessary, initial financial support for F.E.E.T. From the district level, Tallassee City Schools set out to collaborate with school-level administrators, the district's truancy officer, the Tallassee Police Department (best practices visit protocol), English Language Learner teachers (translator services-if needed), school guidance counselors, the Elmore County Helping Family Initiative (student and parent resources), and school personnel (open hearts-mind) to establish a team.
The team decided dual points of focus were critical. First, face-to-face communication with students and parents is imperative. Second, host quarterly parent engagement events (Tiger Parent Nights). Quarterly Tiger Parent Nights invite families to fellowship with Tallassee City Schools' personnel and community partners.
The team took priority steps to ensure the work (home visits and parent engagement nights) was intentional with attainable, positive outcomes. Based on school personnel recommendations, with a visit bag in hand and open hearts, F.E.E.T. members set forth to conduct biweekly home visits. The team offered praise, provided:
Resources.
Extended family engagement strategies.
Promoted social-emotional support.
Delivered academic supplies.
With just about three years of implementation and continuous generous financial supporters of F.E.E.T., the district has experienced increased student, family, and community engagement. Nearly one thousand face-to-face home visits completed (student list expanded to include any/all students as needed), over 600 birthday bottle packs delivered, ten successful Tiger Parent Nights completed, and six F.E.E.T. hosted community events partnering with Elmore County Family Resource Center (The Hispanic Initiative).
Currently, F.E.E.T. has twenty-six team members and visits around 240 k-12 students biweekly. In addition to home visits and quarterly Tiger Parent Night events, a F.E.E.T. Birthday Bunch is now in action. This team creates Birthday Bottle packs to acknowledge each student during their birthday month. With the generous support of Senator Will Barfoot's Community Action grant, student and family engagement is ever present in Tallassee City Schools. Such support ensures that F.E.E.T. will remain on the move!