Natomas Unified Creates New Department To Connect With More Families

New Department is charged with listening and adapting outreach efforts to connect with more families.

Lisset Mijares

Making deeper connections with families that influence positive outcomes for students will be one of the primary focuses of a newly created department in the Natomas Unified School District. Communications and Family Engagement will provide families with education, resources, tools, and a variety of opportunities tailored to meet the unique needs of our diverse school community. 

 

“Although feedback has been positive about our communication efforts, and we’ve had good attendance at our workshops and other offerings through Parent University, this is an opportunity to expand our current actions and target families that have been at times harder to connect with,” said Chris Evans, superintendent.

 

One of the first steps in that effort will be learning the barriers and challenges that limit some parent’s ability to engage and participate. Whether it’s work schedules, mistrust from an experience, or tough circumstances, staff wants to listen and adapt their outreach efforts to connect with more families. This work will be critical as the district implements an 18-month recovery plan to get students back on track who experienced learning disruption because of the pandemic.

 

“We’ve been looking at research and lessons learned from other districts who had to rebound after a disaster, and what we’ve seen repeatedly and specifically with Hurricane Katrina is that it’s imperative to get parents engaged and empowered immediately to return to some form of normalcy,” Evans adds.

 

This new department is an exciting addition in support of the district’s vision that “all NUSD students graduate as college and career ready, productive, responsible, and engaged global citizens. Although the department will officially launch July 1, preliminary work to start making those connections has already begun.  Updates will be shared with the community along the way.

 

The team that will be leading this effort has a diverse set of skills that make a perfect combination to lead this work. Meet the team and their new roles in the link below.

https://natomasunified.org/new-department-to-focus
-on-deeper-connections-with-families/