Authentic Community Engagement

What I’ve experienced and heard from others is that too often, the community’s opportunities to interact with APS leaders and School Board members are limited to families and community volunteers being “informed” or “welcomed” or “engaged” within limited processes that feel traditional and stale, with outcomes that are predetermined.

If the pandemic has proven anything, it’s that this community and its families will give so much for their children’s education. It’s time for APS and the School Board to invite them in as real partners in learning, be active listeners and seek out new parent voices, and take better advantage of the incredible knowledge, talents and volunteerism they have to offer. 

As a School Board member, I will:

1. Give advisory councils a real voice in planning and decision making. School Board members need to be knowledgeable, but they can’t know everything. Good leaders seek out the opinions and insights of others--but that’s impossible to do when APS’s volunteer advisors get bypassed, ignored, or consulted too late in the game.
2. Expect clear goals and parameters for each community engagement effort. Are APS and the School Board seeking to inform families? Validate data or assumptions? Get a sense of what the community values and would prioritize when faced with a difficult trade-off? The community needs to know how it can help, what it can influence, and what it can’t. 
3. ​Seek out new voices and diverse perspectives. As a member of the School Board, I’ll want to know more than who we heard from--I need to know who we didn’t hear from that will be affected by the decisions we’re making. And I’ll work to make sure no individual or group has outsize influence simply because they have the time and know-how to lobby extensively for their interests.

Donate