Sad night........need ideas/help/advice.

[McKelly]

I just returned from a school board meeting, where our school district has decided to close a rural community school. There were many tears shed tonight. That small elementary school was such a vital part of that community.

I would like to do some sort of "welcome" for the new families that will be funneled into the city schools. I will be the new president of the PTA next year, at my children's school, where some of the kids will be funneled into.

Looking for ideas. Has any of your schools done anything special to welcome new families? I just feel so bad for them, I was crying right along with them, and I don't even have kids in that school. Now their kids will have to be bussed in about ten miles, which I guess isn't horrible, but not ideal, especially for the little ones. And their classes will be divided, well actually, all the kids in the district will be moved and dispersed into different schools. This is going to be a nightmare. Thankfully, we won't be moved, we live two blocks from an elementary school, we are very lucky.

 

[Handbag Lady]

Gosh, how sad for those families and scary for the wee ones.

Can you make a phone-tree list, a map of things near the school (Starbucks, after-school care, supply store, anything that most people who know of near their regular school, maps of the bus stops, etc.), emergency contacts near the school and in the school (in case someone misses the bus), school map and layout of carpool area (again, in case the kid misses the bus) and a nice Welcome letter, and then make a large Welcome Packet for the displaced families?

It could be a Summer Project for the neighborhood kids.

 

[jlima]

Assign each new family a "Welcome/Transition" contact who is a parent of a current student. They should contact the new families by telephone 6 - 8 weeks before school starts; and introduce themselves, state why they are calling, what they can do for them and give their phone number or email and offer to answer any questions or help in any way. I would train the welcome contacts with a script, talking points, etc because the people your volunteers are reaching out to, may not want to talk to them, because they'd rather be at their old school . . . but at least you are trying. If you don't have enough volunteers to have a one-on-one pairing, give your volunteers 3 or 4 new students each.

DS 15's middle school did this for their new students, and I REALLY appreciated it.

The PP's idea of a welcome packet is also a great idea. You could include sample lunch menus, a teacher contact list, school year calendar, or anything you can think of that the family of a new student would want. Also, if there are any other new students at your school, that you know of, other than these that are transferring from the closed school, you should include those new students also.

The local school district here in Las Vegas was going to close two rural schools that each have less than 10 students. One of these schools is spending over $36,000 per student to remain open; the other about $21,000 per student. It's a hard decision to close a rural school, but it's massively unfair to spend those kinds of resources on a handful of students. The school board postponed their vote until next school year, so they didn't even decide what to do yet.

 

[McKelly]

Thank you for your responses. I agree that it was a financial move that had to be made, given the current economic crisis and our governor's questionable decisions in education, however, it is sad just the same. There are now 140 kids that need to be moved from their school, I know my DS, who is very shy would not do well in this situation.

I will definitely look into welcome packets and matching present families with new families. I just hope people understand how sad this community was and follow through on the phone calls! Follow through has been a problem with our volunteers in the past.

 

[jlima]

Thank you for your responses. I agree that it was a financial move that had to be made, given the current economic crisis and our governor's questionable decisions in education, however, it is sad just the same. There are now 140 kids that need to be moved from their school, I know my DS, who is very shy would not do well in this situation.

I will definitely look into welcome packets and matching present families with new families. I just hope people understand how sad this community was and follow through on the phone calls! Follow through has been a problem with our volunteers in the past.

ITA on the follow through issue; however, if your volunteers are giving their contact info to the new parents, they would follow up when they had questions. All your volunteers have to do is make the initial contact; or maybe one follow up call a few days before school starts. Good luck!

 

[daughtersrus]

My older girls were shifted from school to school a few times when they were younger. Not because they were closing schools but because new ones were opening and the district had to adjust the boundaries for attendance. I have to say that the kids adjusted very quickly and really didn't seem too upset. The parents on the other hand, were the ones that we're so quick to adjust.

One thing that we always had was an open house just for the new families coming in. They were able to get a tour of the building, meet the staff and even had an easy art project for them to do. As it got closer to the start of school, we would have a ice cream social for the entire school. They would have games set up, inflatables for them to play on, music...It was a nice way for the students to meet new friends and reconnect with old ones.

 

[agnes!]

OP -

If you know of any high school students looking for volunteer service time, this situation sounds like it could work. Maybe responsible kids would follow-up better than their parents? (especially since part of their important high-school grades depend on fulfilling community-service hours...)

It could also be a Girl Scout/Boy Scout service project (so they can earn a badge or it could be part of a Bronze/Silver/Gold project or Eagle Scout project).

I think you sound like a wonderfully-caring person and you would be the perfect person to organize this. If I lived close-by, I would help.

agnes!