Currently, the Issaquah School District contains 27 schools and serves almost 20,000 students. The population and demographics served by the ISD have been changing rapidly in the past 20 years. In 2001, the District was about 85% white students and 15% students of color. Now, the District’s minority enrollment is over 50%. Every year, there are about 500 new families joining our District. (*Note: There are families moving out of our District at the same time.) As our communities become more diverse, we should take extra care to ensure our schools and PTSA/PTAs are an open and welcoming place for all parents and families from different groups and cultures.
Today, both the National PTA and Washington State PTA state the importance of the family and community engagement and list four principles of how the school PTA/PTSA can be more family engaged:
- Inclusive: Embracing and valuing diverse perspectives.
- Individualized: Meeting the unique needs of every family and child.
- Integrated: Connecting and aligning with the educational system.
- Impactful: Empowering families to support their child’s success.
Therefore, the Issaquah PTSA Council encourages all the Issaquah schools’ PTA/PTSAs to have a Family and Community Engagement (F. A. C. E.) coordinator to create an inviting environment for your school community. The mission is to involve more parents and teachers in school activities, advocate for the needs of all children, and encourage more volunteers to advance this mission!
Our Family and Community Engagement Program (FACE) offers an array of resources to enhance the current outreach for new families and diversity initiatives. We encourage PTSA/PTA to have a FACE coordinator. We believe that when families understand how to engage and connect with schools and help their kids, they feel less intimidated, isolated, detached, and then they feel empowered to help and to advocate for their own children.
As the Issaquah PTSA Council Family and Community Engagement chairs, we understand that each school and PTA/PTSA works differently. However, the suggested ideas below are for each PTA/PTSA’s Family and Community Engagement coordinator on how to help their families:
FACE Coordinator Job Description
- Coordinates Cultural Ambassadors to welcome families and help with translations of school information.
- Works together with the Registrar of the school office to welcome and assist families.
- Supports school Librarian to help search for books in different languages.
- Supports MLL staff.
- Supports cultural events and activities.
- Liaison with FACE chairs of the Issaquah PTSA Council (Laura Ni and Melissa Valdez)
- Liaison with Cultural and Family Partnerships of the Issaquah School District.
- Liaison with the Cultural Bridges Program of the Issaquah Schools Foundation.
Resources:
Cultural Ambassadors. (Example Flyer)
Cultural and Family Partnerships Liaisons: Lorna Gilmour is the Specialist ISD, and each school has a Family Partnership Liaison assigned. They can help families with questions about the school, connect them with school counselors, teachers, and other staff who can help students. For more information: https://www.isd411.org/programs-services/equity/family-liaisons
Cultural and Family Partnerships and Cultural Bridges Events: Make sure your school is informed about the events offered every year. Get the information here: https://www.isd411.org/programs-services/equity/parent-events-and-workshops
Cultural Bridges Program:
- Cultural Bridges offers 4 publications a year: 1 Family Guide and 3 Cultural Bridges Magazines. All of these are publish in eight different languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Spanish, and Vietnamese.
- The Family Guide is a compilation of information from the Issaquah School District for families. This guide is published at the beginning of each school year, and it is available for you to give to all new families.
- Cultural Bridges is a quarterly magazine with information about the Issaquah School District, resources from the communities, articles written by parents and students, and also family and cultural events from the cities of Issaquah, Sammamish, Newcastle, Bellevue and Renton.
- Cultural Bridges also offers culturally sensitive support offered either in families’ native language or in English.
- You can find the online versions of the Family Guide and Cultural Bridges magazine here: Cultural Bridges Magazine Issaquah Schools Foundation. If you have questions regarding the Cultural Bridges magazines, please contact Laura Ni: laura@isfdn.org
Interested in becoming more involved?
Family and Community Engagement Program (FACE) chairs: contact Laura Ni & Melissa Valdez at face@issaquahptsa.org