Collaboration starts with the community.
The Governor’s Office engaged stakeholders through community meetings, Zooms, phone calls, one-on-one and small group meetings, and presentations to ensure families, educators, students, and communities could share their feedback and ideas to strengthen Wilmington schools.
Wilmington Schools. Wilmington Voices.
Take a look at some of the feedback from the Community Engagement Events:
- Make learning relevant through a culturally responsive curriculum and “real world” skills like financial literacy.
- Schools need enrichment programs.
- Increase project-based learning.
- Focus on special education support.
- Students need more trips to have more experiences.
- More hands-on learning.
- Increase vocational opportunities
- Smaller class sizes.
- Need a high school option(s) near City.
- Need for closer neighborhood schools for all students.
- Provide support as students transition from Kindergarten to Elementary school to Middle School to High School.
- Structure day and year to meet needs of students, educators, and families.
- Consider using the summer to extend learning opportunities. Use partnerships so we don’t ask more of teachers.
- Teacher and student wellbeing is critical
- Engage in social emotional learning and behavioral wellbeing
- Offer mental health days
- Provide spaces to practice SEL programs
- SEL staff and resources
- Provide more counselors to help identify and fulfill needs
- Value of administrators: lead with love, support, listen
- Recognize achievements and successes of students and staff
- Prioritize relationships
- Make time for relationships – it will take time
- Encourage students to develop relationships with peers
- There needs to be trust at every level: parents, educators, administrators, and district
- Family homelessness and incarceration are barriers
- We have to think through trauma of violence
- Schools should be trauma-responsive environments and places of healing
- Help staff deal with trauma, too
- Positive affirmations
- Combat generational trauma and provide universal trauma training
- Provide professional learning that is grade-level specific, inclusive for urban education, as well as special education
- Offer professional development on trauma, de-escalation, and leadership
- Prioritize professional development time and set day(s)
- Revamp teacher prep
- Teacher prep and higher ed need to have a role in supporting city schools
- Elevate the teaching profession
- Additional training and teacher prep
- Have to support teachers to reduce burnout
- Need to take things off teachers’ plates
- Focus on teacher wellness
- Teacher incentives for career ladder
- Ensure those in schools are aligned and personally invested
- Must find ways to keep teachers invested so they stay and gain experience
- Staffing: more staff per room, lower class sizes at all ages (unit adjustment), limit contractual services
- Need more paras in the classrooms. Look to community members
- Get creative for staffing – high school and college students
- Principals have flexibility around spending, curricula, training. Teachers need a role in decision-making
- Flexibility for teachers to meet needs of students instead of rushing for requirements
- Reimburse or provide teachers with support for expenses they incur
- Foster great teaching
- Out of school learning: enrichment, more movement during day
- Expand extracurriculars or require them for students
- Help students have more experiences
- Summer camps for children
- Establish mentorship programs
- Create rooftop playgrounds
- Develop homework centers
- Provide engaging summer programming, including the arts
- Comprehensive schools: Schools have to be “all inclusive” and support the whole child
- Help coordinate care and consider dental clinics, eye exams, and nutrition
- Offer child care support for families
- Support broadband and internet connections
- Communicate and publicize current services offered through schools and partners
- Provide families with a list of all partners
- Make other supports more known – like housing help
- Provide robust behavioral health support and counseling for the whole family
- Offer more counseling and prevention services
- Student voice is key
- Everyone needs to experience success
- Focus on well-rounded students
- Change assumptions and raise our expectations for students
- Make students feel engaged and welcome
- Schools should be safe and welcoming environments
- Safety in community is key
- Improve school environments to be inviting and bright. Add greenspace
- Flexibility for schools
- More support for transportation/buses
- Provide robust behavioral health support and counseling for the whole family
- Offer more counseling and prevention services
- Train parents and caregivers with grade-specific training
- Technology help for families.
- Bring families and community into schools.
- Have parents/caregivers and students learning together.
- Expand parent academy and have parent accountability.
- Family centered activities.
- Require parents to volunteer at schools.
- Offer English courses for families.
- Provide homework in multiple languages so parents who do not speak English can help their children with homework.
- Provide clear information about school options in multiple languages.
- Make Interpretation services available for families when at the schools.
- Make sure parents are bought into the importance of on time attendance and learning.
- Address truancy as well as the transient piece impacting academic performance
- Engage businesses and engage parents in schools.
- Provide clear communication with all stakeholders.
- Provide intentional, positive communication.
- Meet families where they are.
- Meet family needs.
- Flexibility – Have events on weekends so working families can participate.
- Have dedicated family engagement staff and funding for parent engagement.
- Invest in parent-school relationships.
- Proactive and positive phone calls – not just negative communication.
- Regain community trust.
- Establish more business and nonprofit partnerships.
- Create partnerships to support social and emotional learning and academics.
- Encourage volunteers to tutor and mentor students.
- Business partnerships are important.
- DHSS support embedded in schools to help with parent engagement.
- Provide community incentives to partner with schools.
- Schools must be community hubs.
Share your ideas.