Carson City School District administration building.
Carson City schools consistently receive requests about needs or volunteer opportunities, and they’re usually funneled through district administrators who might refer them to individual sites about how best to help.
Now, a systematic effort to recognize community partners for their engagement and creative support in schools will be offered to thank those who help meet those needs at various levels, Superintendent Andrew Feuling presented during the June 11 Carson City School Board meeting.
Feuling, along with district spokesman Dan Davis and Carson High School’s Career and Technical Education and Work-Based Learning coordinator Candi Robles, shared a draft plan for a program that would support one of the goals in the district’s strategic plan, “Empower Carson City 2027.” The objective is to provide opportunities for district partners to identify how best to assist with school needs and for the district to recognize them in a tiered level. Recognition would be based on level of engagement and covers multiple areas of support such as mentoring, tutoring, financial donations, work-based learning and volunteer service.
The proposal is illustrated in a five-level pyramid with five tiers: Tier 1 at the bottom in a “Supporter” level is a partner who helps provide any level of support not specifically tied to the district’s strategic plan. Tier 2, an “Advocate,” has helped meet at least one of the district’s goals. Tier 3, “an “Ambassador,” has achieved two of the five goals, while Tier 4, a “Champion,” would have met three out of 5. The top earner, accomplishing “Legacy” level as a partner, helps meet at least four out of five goals in the strategic plan.
“It’s not about ‘what I get and what you give me,’ ” Robles explained. “It’s about coming to the table with a need for you and a need for me and how can we communicate most effectively to meet those needs. It is a goal. That’s really the essence of this conversation.”
Robles said the program never would substitute the actions a school’s students or staff would do out of appreciation for donations or service given for activities, guest speakers or fundraising efforts they’re already involved with on a daily basis.
“Schools often write thank you cards, send e-mails, write posters,” she said. “This would never take the place of that personal contact between teachers, administrators and parents. It’s really about providing that return on investment that acknowledges their work and investment in schools that matches what they follow.”
Davis said one reason this program might be appealing to partners and supporters of the district is many might not be aware of the vast opportunities for school involvement. Most seeking to contribute don’t have to provide financially to help students or staff in the classroom, he said.
“It’s much easier to give if you have a reason to give,” he said. “There’s more involvement because there’s a specific need as opposed to writing a blank check.”
District partners of the month would be chosen and honored in a press release and shared in social media, and schools can nominate their own “CCSD Partner of the Month.”
An “Adopt-a-School” program will be implemented, Feuling said, for which partners would provide college and career exposure in field trips, tours, career days, internships or other chances for students that connect with the Nevada Work-Based Learning Continuum. They also provide financial support or volunteer service.
The program also will set up a wishlist sharing website that will list schools’ ongoing needs for supporters to make donations related to capital requests or equipment.
Robles said the idea is to help align community members’ desires to help schools with schools’ rolling needs.
“I can’t tell you how many people have contacted me coming out of COVID,” she said. “They’ve told me, ‘We didn’t know what to do, how we would all work together,’ and now that we have finally passed all that finally, the community is really coming together. And what I am seeing is a community committed to our students.”