Family Engagement Coordinators meet the USD 428 Board

By KEN CARPENTER
Great Bend Post

Great Bend’s Board of Education used COVID-19 relief funds this summer to hire a family engagement coordinator for each of Great Bend’s seven public schools. The new position is designed, in part, to get parents re-engaged with their children’s school following the last school year when interacting with teachers and school administrators was restricted by the COVID-19 pandemic.  

The seven new coordinators were introduced to the school board at the board’s monthly meeting on Monday. 

After hearing the coordinators outline the work they have been doing, Board member Lori Reneau expressed her appreciation for their accomplishments so far. 

"I really am impressed with contacting the quarantine and COVID patients because I can tell you that they feel very isolated and left out,” Reneau said. “So that is awesome. Kudos to you guys and good luck.”  

Saylem Ryff, the coordinator at the Great Bend Middle School, told the Board of an amusing conversation she had on Monday morning with the mother of a student who was quarantined. 

"I just advised the parent that assignments are being uploaded to Google Classrooms,” Ryff said. “We’re encouraging them to continue working so that it’s not so overwhelming when they come back. And she kind of laughed and she said ‘huh, he told me that we’re not doing anything online anymore.’ She was very appreciative because she probably wouldn’t have known had I not called, so it was really positive.”   

The coordinators report to the principal of the school where they work. They communicate with parents through social media and arrange events that bring parents, teachers and school staff together.