September 2024 Update
Including what we heard from YOU in our first-ever Family Council Survey!
At the numero uno Family Council meeting of the 2024-25 school year, we welcomed 46 family members… our biggest team possibly ever! Our website will be updated soon with the names and emails of each representative, plus you can find all the basics about what Family Council is.
Want the in-depth scoop on what happened at our meeting? Click below to read the full version of our minutes… or keep reading for the basic bullets… and then the conversational version of highlights with pretty pictures.
Just the Facts.
Here’s what your engaged Family Council Reps did at our Sept meeting:
Update from Dr. Eric Irizarry, Office of Community Engagement — see his slides.
Learned “How-To” for being on Family Council — see our slides.
Heard about DonorsChoose — follow your school’s teachers’ projects here.
Shared results of our Spring Survey… and what we’ll do as a result — check it out.
We received Summer QnA and 2023-24 QnA Wrap-Up from ACPS, and got your Public Comments and Questions for ACPS. Yup, we also broke some ice & got to know each other… SO inspiring!
Our October meeting will focus on Elementary Math, which will be a huge deal for ACPS later this year. Submit YOUR comments and questions using this Google Form.
Survey Says… We Love Our Teachers!
We heard from over 700 parents and family members in our first-ever Family Council survey… across all schools, with an impressive range of diversity.
Here’s the thing… we are all volunteers and busy family people. Family Council wants to focus on what matters to YOU. So, what ISSUES did you tell us you care about?
Yes, we all care #1 first-and-foremost about our amazing ACPS Teachers! In fact, in the separate question:
What is one thing that is going really well with school?
Your Write-In Comments were overwhelmingly focused on classroom teachers and specialists and staff!
So… we’ll be continuing our relationship with the Albemarle Education Association (AEA) as an At-Large member. Think “T” in PTO, but at a division-level. And… did you see the news on collective bargaining? WOW.
DonorsChoose for ACPS Teachers
Last year, Family Council adopted DonorsChoose to give every teacher in ACPS access to supplemental funding for special classroom projects. It’s super-simple:
Teachers create a project asking for support.
Community members and foundations donate funds.
Teachers receive the requested supplies!
Matching funds are frequently available from national foundations… to the tune of $60 million annually! We’re talking Gates Foundation and loads more. All ACPS teachers are eligible for matches, and teachers at “Equity Focus Schools” receive even more matching funds throughout the year:
As of today, there are 27 projects posted for ACPS educators! Our challenge this year is to sign up community members for DonorsChoose. What can you do? Sign up to “Follow” your school’s projects, and share them via email or on Facebook (“I love our public school teachers!” or “Wow, check out the great learning underway at our school]!” works great… no fancy fundraising pitch required.)
Want to help? It’s super-rewarding, really. We need volunteers to get the word out. Contact Kelly: acpsdonorschoose@gmail.com
Are You Feeling Engaged?
The Office of Community Engagement, led by Dr. Daphne Keiser and Dr. Eric Irizarry, is the Family Council link to ACPS… and they’re in charge of family engagement in schools and in the division. And yeah, we’ve given them an earful over the past few years about communication issues. Happy to report they’re listening and making some changes! Lots more info in OCE slides, too.
We’re really excited about Community in Schools, which will begin this year at the Lamb’s Lane Campus (Greer ES, Journey MS, and AHS) and Red Hill ES. Provides “wrap-around” support… mentoring and tutoring, basic needs for families, attendance, and anything else that gets in the way of student learning and success.
Reminder — if you want to volunteer in Albemarle County’s public schools, you’ll need to fill out a volunteer form (necessary to keep our kids safe):
Boy oh boy, your friendly Family Council leaders have been working to track down info and rules about all the ACPS Advisory Groups that (supposedly) welcome families. We’re posting opportunities on our Facebook page, but here are a few:
Special Education Advisory Committee (SEAC) still has openings.
School Health Advisory Board (SHAB) has openings for Scottsville & Samuel Miller residents. Hint: they discuss healthy food & recess & mental health, which we know many of you care about.
Title I Parent Advisory is rebooting, so if you’re a parent at Agnor, Greer, Mountain View, Woodbrook, Red Hill or Scottsville, contact your principal or Andrea Blount: ablount@k12albemarle.org
Every school has an Improvement Plan, and school board policy and state guidance says families should be involved. Contact your principal! (And tell us if you join, please.)
What Comes Next?
ACPS has some major initiatives underway this school year:
So… the October Family Council meeting will focus on elementary math! Submit your questions and public comment here:
WHEW! This is our first monthly Substack email, and apparently it’s too long to show up in your email inbox… so if you’ve gotten this far, thank you! AND, we have SO MUCH MORE to share with you… for now, you’ll find the most timely info and a community of parents/families who care about this stuff on our Facebook page. (And, if you want to see that info in weekly Substack emails, let us know… we’ll need a volunteer like you to help pull that together.) We welcome your comments below, too.