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Date: 9/7/2018
WEST SPRINGFIELD – West Springfield Public Schools Superintendent Michael Richard is stepping up to organize a Community Outreach Task Force in an effort to address issues of education and communication in the community.
The volunteer group will work to identify best practices for improving family engagement, he explained, and figuring out strategies to effectively track and measure communication within the district.
“This is sort of an exploratory venture on our part. I’ve heard over the last couple of months from community members, and they seem to indicate that they don’t know enough about the details of how the school department operates, what our needs are and how we stack up relative to other communities in terms of funding and staffing,” said Richard.
“It seemed like a real opportunity for me to try to get together a group of interested community members and stakeholders who would be willing to partner with me and do some of that work to share information and advocate for the schools, our needs and our goals,” he continued.
The superintendent told Reminder Publishing that he hopes the task force will inspire people to become more involved with school events.
“I hope, as a natural byproduct, that the more people learn about what we’re doing, they’ll be more active in involved in the things we sometimes struggle with, like getting families to attend events at schools,” said Richard. “Active engagement from families in our students’ educations will enhance everybody’s experience.”
Around 20 residents have expressed interest in the group so far, making it one of the largest organized groups of its kind, Richard explained. Members currently consist of teachers, administrators, parents, business owners and graduates.
“Because the number is so large – I know the rules of mitigation here – a lot of people will express interest and inevitably not everybody will be able to attend one or any meetings, depending on schedules,” said Richard. “But, my hope is that we can generate a couple of smaller subcommittees that are more focused in the work and that will be driven by people’s interests and skill sets.”
The first meeting for the task force is scheduled for Sept.19 at 6 p.m.
If you’re interested in joining the team, email Richard at mrichard@wsps.org by the end of Sept. 7.
For more information, please call the Superintendent's Office at 263-3290.