Family Access & Engagement Coordinator (FAEC)

DISTRICT OVERVIEW

Holyoke Public Schools is a PreK-12 public school district serving nearly 5100 students of whom 80 percent are Latino/Latina in 11 schools. We employ nearly 1300 people who together educate and support a richly diverse community of learners. We are committed to recruiting and retaining top-quality educators who believe all children can and will learn and who strive daily to make school a joyful place of discovery support and belonging.

Holyoke Public Schools strategic plan Moving Forward Together builds on the strengths of our past while serving as a call to action to accelerate student learning by thinking differently about how we teach how we work together and how we support students well being.

Our Equity Commitments are pledges we are making to address systemic equity challenges.

• We intentionally build a community that is anti-racist inclusive and culturally responsive.
• We ensure that students families and staff get the support they need to be successful.
• We seek out and incorporate the voices of those impacted with a commitment to include those who have been excluded in the past.
• We promote access and inclusion for all students staff and families.
• We respect embrace and honor the diversity of our students families staff and community.
• We reflect on our own behavior to minimize harm to others.
• We create a culture of acceptance and empathy so that everyone feels valued and is able to contribute to our communitys success.

Please visit the Holyoke Public Schools website to learn more about us as well as some of our recent accomplishments.

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Spanish:

Las Escuelas Públicas de Holyoke son un distrito escolar público de prekínder a 12. grado que acoge a casi 5100 estudiantes de los cuales el 80 por ciento son latinos/latinas. Empleamos a casi 1300 personas que juntas educan y apoyan a una comunidad de estudiantes muy diversa. Estamos comprometidos a contratar y retener educadores de alta calidad que tengan la certeza de que todos los niños pueden y podrán aprender y que también se esfuercen diariamente por hacer de la escuela un lugar alegre de descubrimiento apoyo y pertenencia.

El plan estratégico de las Escuelas Públicas de Holyoke Avanzando Juntos toma en cuenta nuestras fortalezas anteriores y al mismo tiempo sirve como un llamado a la acción para acelerar el aprendizaje de los estudiantes a través de una perspectiva diferente sobre cómo enseñamos cómo trabajamos juntos y cómo apoyamos el bienestar de los estudiantes.

Nuestros compromisos de equidad son promesas que hacemos para abordar los desafíos de equidad sistémica.

• Construimos intencionadamente una comunidad antirracista inclusiva y culturalmente receptiva.
• Nos aseguramos de que los estudiantes las familias y el personal reciban el apoyo que necesitan para tener éxito.
• Buscamos e incorporamos las voces de los afectados con el compromiso de incluir a los que han sido excluidos en el pasado.
• Promovemos el acceso y la inclusión de todos los estudiantes el personal y las familias.
• Respetamos acogemos y honramos la diversidad de nuestros alumnos familias personal y comunidad.
• Reflexionamos sobre nuestro propio comportamiento para minimizar el daño a los demás.
• Creamos una cultura de aceptación y empatía para que todos se sientan valorados y puedan contribuir al éxito de nuestra comunidad.

Por favor visite el sitio web de las Escuelas Públicas de Holyoke en para obtener más información sobre nosotros y algunos de nuestros logros recientes.

The Family Access & Engagement Coordinator will build school and district capacity to expand and deepen relationships with families develop key community partnerships to enhance family-school relationships as well as support parent involvement voice and leadership development. A key goal of this position will be to support parents in strengthening their efforts at home to support their childs learning and to support school staff in strengthening parent involvement and communications. The HPS turnaround plan requires the implementation of a cohesive district-wide strategy to rebuild trust and strengthen the relationship with HPS families including increasing opportunities for parent voice and leadership.

The Family Access & Engagement Coordinators will report to the Director of the Family Student and Community Engagement Department. They will work in collaboration with school-based leaders (e.g. principals teachers culture and climate teams etc.) and with other FAEteam members (e.g. School Family Promoters Attendance Officer). Each Family Access & Engagement Coordinator is expected to work with multiple locations most likely two separate schools in a flexible schedule which will require adaptability resourcefulness and excellent organizational communication and teamwork skills.

As this position is a highly visible position serving the school community and interfacing with families and outside agencies knowledge of general school office or professional office environment is required. This position requires an appreciation consistent practice and understanding of customer service time management positive inter-personal relationships and multi-tasking in a service-oriented environment.

Responsibilities

• Identify and implement capacity-building strategies to support teachers school leaders and other school staff to expand or strengthen family engagement efforts and mechanisms to enhance parent voice leadership and feedback
• Support teachers and other school staff to understand family and community context and resource
• Design support lead or coordinate periodic school-based and district-wide family activities (educational fun nights cultural celebrations community outreach etc.) in collaboration with school and district leaders and staff. Integrate HELI On Track for Literacy indicators in family activities whenever possible.
• Support school communications with families (including translation and interpretation of parent communications excluding IEPs) as well as family involvement in school activities
• Conduct home visits as required to support specific cases and coordinate and support home visits by teachers and school leaders
• Implement focused efforts to establish strong connections between schools and Pre-K and Kindergarten families
• Manage and support parent volunteers to address school needs and initiatives and develop their leadership skills
• Lead educational workshops and coaching for parents and volunteers on different subjects particularly around early literacy educational policy and regulations special education ELL parent leadership etc.
• Assist designated groups of families in need of special support through light case management referrals and liaison work with community agencies particularly for Pre-K and Kindergarten families
• Work collaboratively with school PTOs
• Assist in the implementation of the attendance policy and communicating with families regarding attendance and punctuality issues
• Implement and strengthen a robust system for regular communications with families particularly related to navigating the school system district policies and procedures events and opportunities for parent involvement
• Maintain updated HPS resource and information sites as part of the district-wide family resource information system
• Participation as needed in Student Support Team and Climate and Culture Team or other instances that require family engagement or involvement at each school
• Develop and manage key community partnerships that support family engagement
• Support district-wide collaborations and initiatives to increase family engagement in early literacy (HELI) Pre-K expansion among others
• Collect document and input all data and necessary information requested by school and district administration in an accurate and timely manner
• Attend training and workshops deemed necessary to perform duties
• Maintain confidentiality of student data and information
• Demonstrate positive interpersonal relationships with students staff parents and community members
• Demonstrate punctuality good attendance and work ethic for all duties assigned
• Attend staff school and district meetings as required
• File maintain and set up all in-school family engagement files
• Organize the workspace area for efficiency safety and appearance
• Collect document and analyze data related to family engagement
• Other duties as assigned by the FSCE Director

Skills Abilities and Traits of Top Performers

• Belief and commitment in HPS values
• Solid commitment to support HPS families lifelong learning and strengthen their trust in and connection to the schools
• Working knowledge of community conditions in Holyoke and the region and of the needs of the diverse families residing in Holyoke
• Ability to mobilize community resources to support families
• Strong interpersonal skills with the ability to communicate well persuade others and work well with others as part of different teams (school staff parents community leaders)
• Ability and willingness to learn a wide variety of tasks required in the promotion of school-family relationships and school office operations
• Highly developed organizational and work planning skills
• Ability to multi-task and flexibility to meet the varying needs of parents school staff students community partners and office visitors
• Extraordinary attention to detail and follow through to meet deadlines and commitments
• Commitment to accuracy timeliness and attention to detail regarding reporting of attendance punctuality and family engagement activities and services
• Excellent computer skills and working knowledge of electronic communication word processing and spreadsheets and ability to navigate student database software as well as general office equipment operation such as phones fax copier etc.
• Ability and commitment to maintain confidentiality for students parents and staff interactions
• Ability to exercise judgment decisiveness and creativity required in situations involving evaluation of information against measurable or verifiable criteria
• Commitment to high performance standards and unwavering belief that all students can excel

Requirements

• Bachelors degree strongly preferred or 2 years of college-level coursework with 3 years of highly relevant experience or equivalent training in a school early education or community agency setting which provides the required knowledge skills and abilities to perform essential job functions.
• Demonstrated working knowledge of community dynamics resources services leaders and partners
• Knowledge of community conditions in Holyoke and of the needs of the diverse families residing in Holyoke
• Direct experience working with families family programming and community outreach
• Demonstrated dedication to family-school partnerships
• Cultural competence in Puerto Rican/Latino communities
• Warm and engaging personality plus solid interpersonal skills and abilities to develop leadership skills in others
• Excellent proactive oral and written communication skills
• Abilities to work independently and be a self-initiator
• Demonstrated ability to be flexible and to work and deliver results as part of multiple teams
• Knowledge of word processing spreadsheets student database and other office software preferred.
• Bilingual abilities (English/Spanish) preferred

Required Experience:

IC