In Search of Catholic School Excellence

Thomas Boles: Welcome to In Search of Catholic School Excellence, the show where we spotlight the program's, people, and practices making a real difference in Catholic education today.

If you're a school leader striving to build a community of faith, excellence, and innovation, you've come to the right place.

Each episode brings you ideas that are working, stories that inspire and new possibilities for your school's mission.

Let's explore what's working and what's possible.

Hi folks.

Welcome back.

I'm joined again by Becky Wong, our fearless leader.

Becky: Hey, happy to be back.

Thomas Boles: This week we're gonna talk about parent engagement.

And I know that we typically start off with thinking about parents as they're obviously the ones who pay the tuition and are, you know, helping us out in every possible fundraiser and are volunteering all over the school to make it a better place.

But we also wanna think about how else we can serve them as opposed to just them serving the school, right?

So why are they here?

What are they seeking and how can we help them along the way?

So, as we begin, Becky, I'd like to ask you where do you see, you know, where do you see that partnership with parents?

Where do you feel like that should start?

Becky: Oh yes.

So of course we see parents every morning when they drop off their kids.

And a lot of times in my experience in working in school, it's all these years.

I see them volunteer, you know, for lunch, you know, helping out distribute lunches, do yard duty festivals, but we wanna go beyond that, you know?

And you know how we were talking earlier about, Hey, how are we helping our parents, you know, as opposed to just being like a transactional relationship with our parents.

And when I used to teach for back to school night, I always, the first thing I say to parents to let them know that they're our partners.

You know, whatever happens at home, I would love to know.

And whatever happens at school, we would love to be on the same page.

Because a lot of times, as you know, the kids are really smart.

They know if mom and dad says one thing, but when they go to school, it's a different rule.

They'll play, you know, against each other.

And, you know, as a teacher, I'm like the morning parent, you know, the school parent where I take care of their child.

And I wanna make sure I'm this on the same page as parents when in the roles at home, because I don't wanna contradict something, you know, you know, student tell me, oh, my parents don't do this or do that.

And it's a relationship.

You don't want students to, you know, do one thing at home and something else at school.

And a lot of times during even like parent-teacher conferences, it's great to get feedback from parents where they're like, oh yeah, I love it when you ask my child to read a book.

Because a lot of times they just.

Go home and watch tv and it's so nice to be reminded like, Hey, 20 minutes of reading every day.

And I thank the parents when they stay on top of those things because, you know, I could check homework, like, did they turn their math homework in?

Did they turn in, you know, whatever reading assignment.

But I can't check to see if they actually read for the 15, 20 minutes.

So it's great when we let parents know and invite them to be partners with us.

So what are some things that we can do to make sure that relationship is fostered?

You know, first we have to make sure we have open communication.

Like how are we communicating with our parents?

You know, like how do they even know what homework is being assigned?

How do we even know, you know, what events coming up?

So, I would say transparency.

It builds trust with parents and buy-in.

I know as a parent myself, I don't wanna be like hearing from my child's teacher and like, oh no, why are they emailing me?

I never hear from them.

It's my kid in trouble.

It's like getting sent to the principal's office, hearing your name getting announced.

It's like, oh no, why do I have to go to the office?

It's the same thing.

We don't want parents to have that anxiety and say, oh no, why are they emailing us?

They never contact us before.

But if we make it a norm where we're constantly, we're not constantly bugging them, but we're communicating with them for good reasons as well.

You know, like, Hey, here's an opportunity.

Come on site.

I know you were talking about like coffee or morning breakfast, you know, with parents like like a town hall meeting could be informal.

Informal.

What were some of your experiences?

You had a great story.

Thomas Boles: Well, yeah, I think I think it's important to keep the communication open and I think it has to be more than just you know, fundraisers and.

You know, we need this from you, we need that from you.

If it's, you know, we talked about alumni, if the only reason why you're contacting somebody is to get some money or to get them to do more for you, then they start to tune you out.

And I think if we have our weekly newsletter, you know, the principals are doing the weekly newsletters and sharing school news, you know, from a parent perspective, if there's nothing in that newsletter, you tend to, you know, skim it and then delete.

And so, you know, making sure that there is the relevant information, that you're being transparent, you're talking about what matters and you're
communicating with them consistently, that makes it easy on, from the teacher side, you know, same thing, having a weekly newsletter can be helpful.

And that way you don't end up with those situations where the parent is surprised by getting a note from the teacher.

Right.

And sometimes having, you know, a note from the teacher being, Hey, you know, Johnny is awesome.

Is also a good way of doing it.

But keeping the open lines I think is important.

And, you know, the.

We can do this formally and informally and, you know, speaking to morning assemblies in the Ian world you know, the informal, or I guess the formal
thing is they have assemblies every morning and, you know, the whole school's together in the same space inside, outside, whatever it might be.

It's not over the intercom.

It's like everyone's together.

Right.

It's a community thing, but parents are also invited.

And so as long as it's a safe place for parents to be in there and it, you know, doesn't conflict with the flow of what's going on, everybody's together.

They can hear the message and then afterwards, you know, the kids go off to class.

A lot of times the parents are still there, you know, talking with each other, you know, in the gym, in the yard, in the parking lot.

And you know that, that conversation is.

Part of their community.

You know, we have an opportunity as a school to curate that right?

To be there.

Maybe have something informal where you just kind of, you know, linger and say hi to the parents who are still there and, you know, jump into conversations.

And I know that can be sometimes nerve wracking 'cause you never know what they're talking

Becky: Right.

Thomas Boles: But you know, if you step into that conversation as a school leader, it probably ends up being a little bit lighter than it might've been.

But also having, you know, taking that Friday, let's just say on Friday, having, you know, coffee and donuts afterwards.

And maybe that's, you know, someone's volunteered to provide that, but also that's a very inexpensive way for you to kind of keep a pulse
on what's going on with families and what's going on with the school and how they perceive things by just being there and being available.

So whether you have an actual town hall meeting where you're sitting there talking about a certain topic, or if it's just something very informal where you get a chance to just, you know, be in each other's presence.

Talk about what's going on, what's going on this weekend.

I mean, a lot of times, you know, as a teacher or a principal, you hear a lot of things that you wouldn't otherwise hear in those moments.

Right.

And so, you know, you know, classically there would be like the kids off to vacation to go, you know, to ski school or something for a week.

And you're like me, where you know, you want, in the back of your head you're like, did you notify the office?

The kid?

Did you notify the teacher?

The kid's gonna be gone for a week.

You know, silly stuff like that.

But no, seriously, like having conversations with folks and just keeping a pulse on what's going down, I think is a great opportunity.

Becky: Yeah.

And it's nice to get, you know, informal feedback as opposed to wait till the end of the year and just send out that survey and you get very little response.

And a lot of times that gaining the, those little things or the feedback or like, someone doesn't like chicken nuggets lunch, everyone hates it, but just lives with it.

It's just like people are grumbling, but hey, how much, like how hard is it to fix something so simple?

And people will feel heard, you know?

Or parents will feel like, oh yeah, you know, it's so simple.

But, you know, they made a change because they heard us.

Yeah, I just feel like people wanna be listened to, you know,

Thomas Boles: Yeah.

I mean, and you take all that with a grain of salt, but I think the reason why we're here.

You know, that, you know, what are we doing any of this for?

It's, you know, for our families, right?

We're all, as you said, we're all partners, right?

But parents wanna know if this is a place that their kid belongs, and if it's a place where they belong.

And so if you're listening to them once again, you don't necessarily have to take every suggestion.

And I'd actually recommend against that,

Becky: Oh, definitely.

Thomas Boles: but take it with a grain of salt and just, you know, hear the message behind the message, right?

What are they trying to tell me?

And you know, that can be just even informal surveys, right?

You're like, check the box.

How many times, you know, have I heard about this?

Okay, maybe we should do something about it.

But it's just giving them an opportunity and making them feel like they're truly, there is a partnership and it's not just, oh, you know, make sure you pay your tuition and, you know, leave us alone.

Becky: Definitely.

It's like we can't please everyone, but to even just acknowledge like, oh yeah, we know about this.

We don't have to fix everything.

We don't have to change, you know, every single, you know, lunch menu item because someone so and so doesn't like it.

But just to acknowledge and let parents know that they're heard and there's always compromise too.

So you brought up an interesting point about parent engagement is like picking a theme for the year for like how parents participate.

I know we picked themes for everything else, you know, whether it's our school wide learning expectations or you know, the theme for graduation, whatever it is.

But then it's great to.

Think about like, Hey, what's our goal or theme with our parents?

What have you seen, or what's a good suggestion in terms of like, this is the first year we're gonna pick a theme.

What would you recommend?

Thomas Boles: I think you gotta know your families.

I mean, it's really easy to say you should do this.

But when I have these kind of conversations with principals, you know, the kind of generic go-tos are one, you know, our own school that a lot of the parent
focus has recently been, you know, parent education has been focused towards mental health and like helping the kids out with stress and everything else.

And I think that's good for the parents to hear too for themselves.

But, you know, obviously the school has felt that there is something you know, lingering there and that they want to address it.

So bringing in experts, I mean.

There's definitely, the school's not gonna get up there on stage and say, this is how you should do everything with your child, because we know everything better.

But if you have the opportunity to bring in an expert who can, you know, present some information and an opinion, then, you know, then parents can dec decide for themselves if they want it.

But at least it shows that you care, you know, that you're thinking about things from their perspective.

So I know that, like right now, that's a theme I've seen.

I typically go, you know, from the tech perspective, we start with common sense media.

And you kind of take what they're doing and you very easily could just follow their script and talk about those things.

But, you know, devices right now is a huge thing.

And so, you know, how do we get kids off the devices?

How do we have more family engagement?

Those are questions that I think everybody in the country for sure is having.

And so, you know, getting help to talk about those things.

Or even just a place to air those things out.

Sometimes it can be just a circle and people are sharing like, you know, I feel like our dinners are no longer a thing anymore because we don't sit down together.

We're always on the go.

You know, how do I get, you know, engagement with my son or daughter at that kind of thing?

Well, that's an opportunity for someone else to say, Hey, this is how we do it.

One of the it just popped in my head, but one of the classic examples that a parent gave me, you know, she felt like, and she's a single mom.

And she had, you know, two boys and, you know, two boys playing sports.

And then, you know, she had a pretty high power job and there's just not a whole lot of time that they were gonna be sitting down together.

So what she ended up doing, and you know, some of you might freak out when I say, you know, she cut her cable, she took the money that she spent on her cable, and she said, well, you know, let's go out to dinner with the whole family.

In this case, I, they actually had a younger girl too, so there's three kids and the mom, and they would go to, you know, a place where they could watch, you know, sports on tv.

They'd get pizza and they'd have conversation.

It was like, no devices, we're hanging out, we're getting pizza, we're doing this, you know, maybe once a month, twice a month where they're gonna go spend the money.

But that money that we're gonna spend on cable, where they'd be at home staring at the tv.

Anyway, they were out together having conversations, watching the sports anyway, but it felt like a treat, you know, it felt like a treat.

And I, she shared that with a group of other parents and I thought.

Man, that's so great.

I mean, I stole that with my family.

Like

Becky: Oh, nice.

Thomas Boles: We have these moments where we're like, this is a time where we're gonna go out and we're gonna do, like, specifically have a conversation about whatever, or enjoy a certain experience.

And that's really intentional.

It's not just, you know, what can we eat in 15 minutes on the way from one practice to the other.

Becky: Right.

It's not like Uber Eats, you know, to your house and you just like grab your food and go to your room.

Oh, that's a great idea.

Thomas Boles: Yeah.

And I, you know, and that came outta left field, you know, she seemed to me like somebody who didn't have it all figured out and, but she had a great example for all us to share.

Right.

And then to flip around, you know, talking about, well, you know, if she was struggling with getting kids to sit down and do their homework, well that's something that another parent was able to share.

Like, Hey we do homework together at the table.

We find that half hour, we all sit down.

We all do it.

And you know, mom and dad are not on their computer doing their own thing.

Maybe they are while they're

Becky: phones, right?

Thomas Boles: Right.

But like, they're there to help.

And you know, especially now, it's hard to have that.

But

I digress.

The, just the idea of being able to share this great idea with the family, I think that's valuable.

So, you know, whether you have the expert in the room or you have.

You know, just a conversation.

Being able to share with each other I think is so valuable.

Parents need community.

I mean, a lot of the decisions about what school they end up going to, and I see this, you know, I see this even more at the high school level, which is kind of crazy, that they're like, well, what's in it for me?

do I get to go to parties?

You know, do I get to, you know, do things?

And they want to be involved.

And that sometimes doesn't, you know, mean volunteering, but a lot of times it means like, am I gonna have adult friends that I can see at the games or at the whatever?

You know?

And I think that's, it's not necessarily the school's responsibility to provide that, but it should be a welcoming place that those things can happen, right.

Becky: definitely.

So as you were telling me all these stories, I bet parents are out there like, when do I have time to attend another meeting?

Right.

So I was thinking like, hey, you know what parents have to, you know, fulfill their parent participation hours anyways, and some of them could be as low as 15 and up to like 40 hours.

I'm like, that's like a whole work week that you have to commit.

So since you have to fulfill those hours anyways.

Wouldn't it be great if schools allowed for like, or counted these workshops?

Like if a parent attended a one hour workshop, you know, parent information workshop or some sort of event where they're not volunteering
but they're attending and they're learning something or contributing to it, wouldn't it be great if those, you know, hours counted?

You know, it's like, why not?

Thomas Boles: I can think of at least one school who does that.

You know, that's a good way to ensure they get there.

Becky: Right?

And a lot of times, you know, they might not be well attended.

When you have workshops, you invite an expert, you have like two people show up, so that's kind of a bummer.

But you'll have more parents or ill, it'll bring more parents in, I would say.

And also a lot of these events or like the workshops or any meetings happen in the evening, so.

I know when I had young kids, I'm like, I'm not dragging my two kids back to school half.

And I eat dinner really early at five.

Like, what am I gonna do?

The meeting's over at seven, my kids are starving, I'm starving.

So some things I noticed my school did is that they provide afterschool care or they extended the afterschool hours.

So my kids could go there and, you know, they can offer pizza or you could say, Hey, pay $5 for pizza.

And also I know one school, they have food trucks at evening event.

So then, you know, you could have like a little small community event and you don't have to worry about like ordering the pizzas or cooking hot dogs or whatever.

So it's like right there.

So if you have childcare and dinner provided or easily accessible, then parents are more likely to attend or it would make it my life easier than to.

Thomas Boles: I think that's true.

I mean, if you take away the obstacles and that's, you know, let's not assume that parents don't want to be there, so let's assume that they want to be
there and you take away the obstacle of, I've gotta figure out dinner and I have to figure out you know, what am I gonna do with my kid during the meeting?

Because they can't really participate in that if you solve a couple of those problems and they're more likely to show up.

And I think, you know, COVID showed us that, you know, we can have all kinds of meetings online, so that takes away even more so, and I think you have a lot more attendance.

I mean, unfortunately you don't have as much engagement online because people just shut the cameras off and just listen.

But if the message is getting out there and the childcare and the dinner is solved, then like, great.

I think it is important to have at least one event in person.

So, you know, and if you're gonna have something in person, you need to be able to provide those things.

You don't necessarily have to pay for dinner, right?

You can make it available.

Like, Hey, why don't you come early?

We're gonna have, you know, I mean, coming from an Italian family and going to an Italian school, in an Italian neighborhood, it was very easy to throw a giant pot of pasta together with sauce that cost.

Like you could feed an army for like less than 20 bucks.

So, you know, that's something that you could do and maybe somebody would be interested in doing that,

And it's just a simple thing.

We're gonna have a plate of pasta.

If you wanna come hang out in the cafeteria, we can sit and chat.

You know, teachers are invited, parents are invited.

Principals and vi like everybody can just come and hang out and then we'll have the meeting and the kids have a place to go and play.

Right.

And I think if you satisfy those things, that's great.

But it's important to erase some of those objections.

And if you do, then people will show up.

Becky: Oh yeah, definitely having those barriers make us, or they're almost, it's not even an excuse.

Those are real problems.

And when we help parents in that way, then it's like, oh, okay, maybe we can, and it's easier.

So in terms of like parent engagement and like workshop and like, parent education, some things that we can offer as like, you know, the usual academic base, like how to manage like homework stress.

As you mentioned, like I feel like every family has that problem.

With's, like one kid.

You always have that one kid.

They'll love doing their homework.

It's done by the time they get home.

Here's another one.

It's like, oh gosh.

It's like dragging them in, like, I'll do it later.

Or you have to bribe them.

So just having, you know, tips from other parents or maybe an bring in an expert like the other ones like high school prep and the whole anxiety and like preparing.

I've had I've done school tours where kindergarten parents ask about high schools, what do they need to get their child ready.

I'm like, oh, and you're applying to kindergarten.

So it's never too early to prepare, but just like having those opportunities available for our parents so that it helps ease their anxiety and reduces their stress.

But there's also fun opportunities.

Doesn't have to be all, you know,

Thomas Boles: All business.

Yeah.

Becky: all business, you know, could.

It could be, you know, just like, invite parents for fun activity.

It could be like a adult only, you know, or even like a sporting event could be fun.

You know, have a softball team or a soccer team for adults

Thomas Boles: Yeah.

Becky: community.

Thomas Boles: I think you definitely need to have one event, especially at the beginning of the year where it's just fun.

And to be honest, you know, maybe even a couple more of that, you, your fundraisers are gonna happen and parents will be there and there's gonna be certain events, you know, Christmas show, whatever, where parents are gonna show up.

But you want to have a couple of those touch points.

And I think the, my two favorite ones are you have that, you know, family picnic before school starts like that Sunday before, and then whoever shows up, you know, it can be a potluck.

And then you have something, you know, that's, you know, most people have a back to school night in September

And that's fine.

You know, that's a good thing to have.

Not to take away from it, but you also want to have potentially something that's just, let's just get together and be happy in each other's presence.

And if you can find a way to do that it's, I think it's a really valuable thing, especially at the beginning of the year.

'cause you want to get off.

On the right foot.

You want to have as many touch points as possible with the families.

And if you're, it's all positive, you know, by the time you get to report cards eh that's all, you know, that's, you're, so you've riding this train of happiness that hopefully that you don't have to let the kids down too much.

The family's down too much with their report cards.

No.

Just joking.

You know, it should make everything easier if you invest in those relationships, and it doesn't have to cost a lot of money.

As we're discussing here

Becky: You know, would've been a good workshop that I would've attended.

Before I had my kids, I didn't really cook.

I would've loved if some parents just shared like their dinner ideas.

You know, like quick, you know, 15 three minutes.

It's like easy prep cooking classes or just a menu that you share.

Like, Hey, what do you have on Monday?

My kids are like approaching their twenties.

I still don't know what to make for dinner.

I would love for someone to go, Hey, try this.

Or especially for like the picky eaters, like, oh, my kid doesn't eat anything except for butter, pasta, and just trying different things and getting ideas.

So,

Thomas Boles: yeah, I think sharing those kinds of ideas, you know, it's easy to say, Hey, let's have an open forum, you know, parent list, which, you know, can be a nightmare in some cases of like what might be talked about in that open forum.

But if in the newsletter you're including these

Allowing people to, you know, edit it and share it, that can be a really powerful thing, you know, and that's solving a problem.

Once again, you know, thinking about parent problems and being able to offer some solutions.

You don't have to be the expert, but you're just showing that you care.

Becky: Right.

And a lot of times where like my last school, it's kind of a commuter school where, you know, it's not neighborhood kids that come to the school.

So a lot of parents don't have time to show up physically.

They wanna help, but they can't be there at that time.

A lot of them, you know, wait till their kids go to sleep before they do, you know, whatever work they need.

So it's a nice way for parents to contribute, you know, and help out and do volunteer hours to add to a newsletter, like, oh, here's a tip, and.

Our parents are so resourceful, you know, we all go through the same things.

Just share some other ideas that's like non-academic based, I would say.

Maybe have an expert or just someone with experience in terms of understanding, added lessons, development, you know, dealing with routines, you know, I know a topic that comes up a lot, even in like second or third grade.

Like when's a good time to get my kid a cell phone?

And like what are the ground rules for that?

Social media and ai.

One of my schools parent volunteered and they gave a workshop because they were an expert in the field of like, how to deal with social media, how parents can tackle ai.

Like, what is it?

What does it mean?

And this was last year where it was not new, but it was relatively new where, you know, a lot of schools were like, well, this is the policy for ai, but what's the policy for AI use at home?

You know?

Let's see.

Oh.

Other things besides just workshops, getting parents involved.

It's and we're talking, we keep talking about food in this podcast.

Thomas Boles: Almost lunchtime.

Becky: why don't, it is like how do we get our parents, especially who own businesses, you know, in the community involved.

It could be a lot of times our parents like, own restaurants.

Why don't we have a night where they can, you know, use the school kitchen and host, you know, it's not free, but, you know, and create a menu.

I think we did that one time for like, I think it was like a painting night where and this was during COVID, our school sewed paint kits and one parent led a
painting class and then another parent who had a restaurant also was like a vendor where you can pick up your paint kit and a spaghetti dinner at the same time.

So they made a whole event during COVID so that, I thought that was really cool and it's nice way where a family owned business was able to like, you know, showcase their food and also be introduced to the community.

It was really nice.

Like other ways parents can like participate in terms of like not physically being there.

I know a few parents were good.

Or a lot of people are pretty good at using social media, so they were able to help design flyers or just like Facebook or Instagram posts to create buzz for like the fall festival or whatnot.

So those are things that help and it takes a it saves the office a lot of time to like create a flyer and put it a newsletter.

But how nice is it if a parent's like, oh, you know, they were in charge of the fall festival, just the marketing part, and they gave us information we just posted as opposed to I was a deck coordinator.

It had to manage the posting itself, create the flyer, you know, get the information from the parents.

And it was so nice that was done.

Thomas Boles: Yeah, I like that.

I like that idea of promoting the businesses owned by the families.

I mean, having a directory once again, not necessarily something that you just throw in an open forum, but as part of your parent newsletter saying, you know, please support our school owned businesses, our family owned businesses.

And just having that directory there.

You know, maybe somebody is looking for something and they want to go have a conversation, or they can have an informal conversation with somebody before they make a decision about something.

I think that's a great way to do it.

And also kind of highlights for you as a school leader, you know, what.

How many electricians do we have?

You know, how many how many builders do we have?

How many lawyers do we have?

You know, to be able to think about the things that you might need to get done.

And even maybe you don't want to necessarily directly hire a parent because that can get kind of sticky, but you could use them as advisors in your decision making about certain things.

And they can weigh in on something before you have to actually make a big decision.

So, you know, whether they're promoting to each other or it's just an available resource.

It can be a powerful thing to have a family owned business directory.

Becky: Oh yeah.

And it's definitely like for me, a lot of times we need like a plumber electrician instead of just Googling it or just looking on Yelp.

Like, look at your parent community.

These are people you trust and they're part of your school family Anyways.

Thomas Boles: Definitely.

Becky: so last thing, it's like basically what do we do about this?

You know, what are our steps to get started?

And like, just going beyond, you know, asking parents to volunteer their time or their money.

It's like, plan, start by planning that fun event, whether it's the beginning of school year or you're listening to this podcast at the end of May, like plan ahead.

Like, Hey, what's that fun parent event that we can start building that relationship that's not just academic or, you know, financial.

It's like, hey, welcoming families and parents to our community.

Secondly, like, review your communication.

It's like how are you communicating parents?

Is it just the newsletter?

Do you send a newsletter out with your student information system?

Thomas Boles: Yeah, make sure it's consistent.

You know, ideally it's weekly, but you know, that's, there's hidden gold in your weekly newsletter.

It doesn't have to be just a, Hey, everything's fine, everything's great.

Like there's, you can push things to further even use it for, you know, education purposes.

But yeah, make sure you've got your newsletter and you're doing that consistently.

Becky: And I like it on the same day when I was a teacher every Friday, you, the, this envelope, Friday envelopes went home.

You know, to always look for it.

They know to order, you know, the lunch for next week.

They know to look for, you know, special events, the calendar items.

Now everything's done digitally.

And, you know, you could send that out.

Just be consistent.

I would say same time I mean, same day of the week and preferably the same time of the day, I would say, instead of like randomly at like 11:00 PM on a Tuesday or sometimes then parents won't know to look for it.

As opposed, it's every Wednesday at two o'clock that email gets sent.

And if you use your student information system, it's great because it, a lot of the information is enclosed in your community.

But, and my last goal, we use MailChimp.

And what's cool about MailChimp is that you can track to see how, what your percentage of open rate and I looked this up and the average is about 40 ish percent ranges.

Like constant contacts said theirs was about 35% for a school newsletter.

So if your newsletter open rate is dips below the 40 and 30%, start thinking of like, Hey, what can we change so that we our parents want to open it, you know, could be simple fixes like a scheduling, like you
could write your newsletter on a Monday and have it scheduled on a Wednesday afternoon at 2:00 PM also your subject line, I don't know, make it more interesting as opposed to school newsletter for the date.

Thomas Boles: Right.

Yeah.

Including the topics that may be important so they can decide at that point, you have a better chance of picking one of those topics and going, I wanna read that topic, rather than, oh, here's the next newsletter.

Right?

Becky: Oh yeah.

And straight to spam or

Thomas Boles: yeah.

Becky: straight to archive.

And then think about like who's sending the parent communication or the family communication?

Is it the office, your principal or teacher sending their own class newsletter?

Do we have room parents that send out a different set of information or instructions?

And also think about like how are the parents communicating with each other?

I know some schools a friend of mine has a son goes to a school in the city and I just asked her, I was like, oh, what is your.

Your class parent group used, and she's like, oh yeah, we just use WhatsApp.

But officially everything is by email.

So it was just something simple like, oh no, does someone have page 12 of the workbook?

My kid lost it.

They use WhatsApp for that and they just share.

So I thought that was kind of cool.

Have to be careful about messaging, but

Thomas Boles: Yeah, it's a slippery slope, but you know, parents are gonna do that on their own anyway.

So if you can, you know, be ahead of that or if you can think about the ramifications that could be there and to try to prevent them all the better.

You know, don't give them a reason to gossip.

Becky: yes, you definitely find that strong parent who is an advocate for your child's class.

I would say that's a good way for you to make sure that everyone stays on topic.

I would say.

Thomas Boles: I would also be careful about handing out your parent list.

You know, obviously you have the room parent doing some things and you've got the fundraising folks, but you know, people feel like they have the right to just say, can I have the class list?

I want to email about a birthday.

And you're like,

Or you know, it may not even be their own class where they're asking about something.

So it's just, you gotta be careful about that stuff and hopefully.

You can control it.

But, you know, having that information and having a way for parents to be able to get that message out, I think would be huge.

Becky: And also think about meetings, you know, instead of having mandatory meetings in person, think, you know, virtually but also think about how you're having those virtual meetings.

Do you have a Google Meet set up?

Do you have Microsoft teams Zoom?

Make it easy for families, you know, as opposed to the last second, Hey, we have to just use that one link, or whatever.

Just have that set up,

Thomas Boles: Yeah, it should be bookmarked, you know, in a private part of your website or on your student information system.

So it's the same thing.

You don't have to worry about five seconds before getting a Zoom link sent out.

You know, if you want to pre-register whatever, you know, you can also do the webinar version.

You spend a little bit more, you know, from Zoom, let's say on the webinar version, but then you don't have to worry about.

People reacting because it's just one way communication.

So, you know, lots of ways to think about it, but you definitely wanna make it as easy as possible, have that information ready for them so that they can jump in pretty easily.

It always looks bad when things are kind of last second and chaotic.

You know, there, there's not a thought going into it that looks poorly on you and they, people just feel like you're not really, you know, together.

And if you can't pull off sending an email about a Zoom meeting, you know, the bigger problems you might have.

Bigger problems, right?

So, it's just important to think of those things through and ideally you can use that same link all year, that kind of thing.

Make life easy for folks.

If you want to have them register ahead of time, that makes it also easy.

'cause if they're not registered, they don't get on.

But you know, just thinking tho through those things.

So it's as easy as possible for parents to participate.

I would push for the more Zoom meetings and, but still have your one or your two in-person deals, and then make sure you're paying attention to what those in-person things are.

But I think it's a great opportunity to take advantage of the remote virtual meeting.

And if it's something that can be recorded that it can be available for folks to see later if they can't actually make that time because they work at night or whatever it might be.

But those are, you know, let's take advantage of all these cool tools that we have now.

Becky: That's a great idea about recording it, especially when we're talking about like, Hey.

Making all this workshop for parents.

They can't make it.

They'll miss it forever.

But it's great if we had it, you know, recorded whether it's over Zoom or whatnot.

There's definitely a value of having the same link because I don't know how many times I've had a meeting and I had to hunt for the link and I'm like, I'm trying to get sign on 10 minutes in advance.

But I, one time I was late 'cause I couldn't find the link.

So I hate being late for anything.

You know how I am.

So it's like, yeah, make it easy.

Post it in a spot that's easy to find.

Two more things about parent communication.

I would say ask for feedback, you know, parent surveys, you know, just create a simple, you know, Google form, you know, could be
like once a month, you know, Hey, let's check on this, or just make sure we're checking, you know, whatever feedback it is, you know.

Thomas Boles: Ask for different topics that they want to hear about.

Becky: Oh, definitely.

And I would say the last one would be like, parents sign up when they wanna sign up for things.

Make it easy, like have a Google form.

You can even do a Google calendar.

They wanna sign up to volunteer for something.

Set up a, I think Google Calendar has this nice like, feature now you could book appointments.

It's free.

You don't have to use like a separate app.

I know my last school they used Signup Genius, the book times.

So those are like simple things, you know, it takes maybe a little bit time to learn, to set it up, but once it's done, it makes it easy.

It removes a lot of the barriers, you know.

Thomas Boles: I think if the more information or the more availability of that information, the less questions you have.

So, you know, oftentimes hiding things creates more, you know, chaos and panic when you have an opportunity to talk with parents and to engage with them in whatever their concerns might be.

Or whatever your concerns might be, then it ends up being a whole lot better.

You know, obviously people talking makes for a much better situation than people just making up what they think the other person is thinking.

So, you know, be consistent and you know, be intentional about what you're doing.

And I think everybody wins.

Becky: Oh, definitely.

And like the last thing to check for is.

Like your school events for parents.

We're not talking about, you know, the fall festival, the spring show or whatnot, but, you know, intentional and planned parent events.

You know, we talked about the workshops, like how many workshops are you gonna have in the year, you know, be consistent.

It's not like the spur of the moment someone volunteered like, oh, let's just have a workshop.

So have a schedule out for the year, you know, every end of the school year.

I would say even before may you send a school calendar out to parents.

Why don't you have a, why don't we send like a events calendar where it's like, oh, here's some workshops that we'll be having for next year.

And again set up a system where we can offer opportunity for dinner and childcare.

Thomas Boles: Yeah, if it's gonna be on site, try to eliminate, or in any case, try to eliminate as many of the barriers that they have to participating.

And, you know, that doesn't necessarily have to cost you a lot of money.

It might take a little bit of effort, it might take some time.

But you know, the idea is that we want it, we want people to show up.

You, you want your whole community there.

You want them to participate because that's just gonna make the school a whole lot better.

Becky: Oh yeah, for sure.

I think that's it.

Thomas Boles: That's it.

I think so too.

So I think the bottom line is I think we've covered it's important to, to be consistent, to be open, to be available, and to be intentional.

And I think if you do those things, then you know, the school will be humming along and you'll have a lot better relationships, especially when it comes time to talk about things that may not be so joyous.

You've already built that foundation.

So thank you.

I wanna thank you again for joining me and for sharing all your wisdom about parent engagement, and I look forward to more conversations.

Becky: You are welcome.

See you next time.

Thomas Boles: Thanks for joining us on In Search of Catholic School Excellence.

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