My View
Bringing the Community Into Our Schools
BY HEATHER DAVIS SCHMIDT/School Administrator, February 2021

FINANCING FOR PUBLIC SCHOOLS relies on voter support. As school leaders, we work hard to communicate our needs and yet still find ourselves falling short.

We sometimes run into community members who have no idea about this or that. What’s this I hear about a new school? Why do we need more money for technology? Aren’t our kids spending too much time in front of screens already?

A few years ago, in my former school district in Whitefish, Mont., we contracted with a polling consultant when we were considering asking our voters to approve a $26.5 million bond to build a new elementary school. We learned that 76 percent of our voters did not have children in our schools. In and of itself, that fact has proven to be of significant value. We realized we needed to find a way to bring our community into our schools so our voters could learn firsthand about our programs and develop positive relationships with our students.

Creating Bridges

We started bringing volunteers into our schools through an existing nonprofit organization, Writing Coaches of Montana. This program brings volunteers into our schools to work one-on-one with our students, which creates understanding of the instructional needs of our students and the quality of educational programming.

Writing Coaches is a program focusing on academics that’s particularly effective at bringing community members into middle and high schools. At the elementary level, we typically have lots of involved parents. But by middle school, the picture changes. Writing Coaches creates a bridge for parent involvement at the secondary level without being too intrusive to their children’s school day.

Another avenue for connecting community and schools is the Junior Achievement entrepreneurship curriculum. This program carries two needs. One is a small financial contribution and the second is a local professional willing to volunteer to present the curriculum alongside the classroom teacher.

In Whitefish, local professionals contributed donations from their businesses and found a comfortable fit using the pre-prepared curriculum knowing the teacher would be present to manage the classroom. Banks, other financial institutions and tech start-ups prove to be some of the most willing partners.

Investment Returns

Volunteers can fill an array of project needs at middle schools and high schools. We asked community members to judge our annual speech and debate tournament, and the district’s Geographic Information Mapping class brought in professionals on various topics. The government class hosted political candidates and election officials.

The key is to provide clear expectations, training and a visitor system. The Whitefish district developed a volunteer handbook, conducted topic-specific training and used the Raptor visitor management system to ensure safety in schools. A small investment for coordinating volunteers can lead to a big return in the voting booth.

After a Writing Coaches participant or another volunteer spends time inside a school, they often share a positive and personal story about a student with whom they have worked. They share the value our local public schools bring to the community. When they get to the voting booth and are asked to vote on a funding decision about local schools, it’s the personal experiences that inform their decisions. We need our voters to see themselves as connected to our local schools.

HEATHER DAVIS SCHMIDT is superintendent of the Target Range School District in Missoula, Mont.