by Rosemary Mitchell
Community School Director, South Kearns Elementary
This school year has seen many changes at South Kearns Elementary. Not only do we have a new principal and many new teachers, but we have renewed enthusiasm for supporting our students and families in the best way possible. When planning for parent teacher conferences, we recognized an opportunity and seized it! With 15 representatives from a few of our strongest partnerships, we hosted South Kearns Elementary 1st Annual Resource Fair!
We had two primary goals in mind when planning this event:
- to increase parental engagement, investment, and trust in our school
- to connect our students and families with the resources they need
Parental engagement is often cited as a barrier to success in education and with such a large turnover of staff this year, we wanted to start the school year by letting parents know that our school is here to support them to create stronger families and a greater sense of community.
Fortunately, this vision is shared by many organizations that we work with. As a United Way Promise Partnership School, South Kearns Elementary benefits from a number of partnerships that offer basic needs support like medical care, dental care, vision care, health care enrollment, immunizations, mental health care, and food security. Not to mention classroom supports and the afterschool program!
These partners are not only responsive and engaged with our families, but they offer incredible services in our neighborhood. Each booth at the resource fair had something unique to offer. It is important to remember that these services ultimately support the student in order to help them improve academically. For example, when students receive immunizations and regular medical care, they are less likely to be absent, which means better learning and higher test scores! When parents have access to health care insurance, everyone in the family is better off. These partnerships focus on preventing barriers — and it’s working.
Not only did parents learn about what resources are available to them here in Kearns, but families had fun! With plinko, stickers, cookies, and other goodies, students and parents alike left parent teacher conferences with smiles on their faces!
Thank you to everyone who participated in our Resource Fair and thank you for all you do to help support students AND their families!
