Family Engagement Specialist

About the Employer

Family Access & Engagement Specialist

District Overview

Holyoke Public Schools is a PreK-12 public school district serving nearly 4,800 students, of whom 80 percent are Latino/Latina, in 11 schools. We employ nearly 1,300 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.

Strategic Plan: Moving Forward Together

Our 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.

Successes

Many successes contributed to Holyoke's return to local governance after 10 years in state receivership. These include:

The highest graduation rate on record of 77.1 percent, an increase of more than 15 points over 10 years

Meaningful, applied learning opportunities for high school students, including theme-based academies, career vocational technical education programming, work-based learning, and advanced coursework

A comprehensive approach to early literacy that includes strong core instruction and one-on-one tutoring, contributing to more students reading at grade level

A thriving dual language English/Spanish program, where nearly 900 students are on their path to becoming bilingual, biliterate, and bicultural

Job Summary

The Family Access & Engagement Specialist 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 child's learning and to support school staff in strengthening parent involvement and communications.

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 heliTrack 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 preK 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, EL, 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 preK 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), preK 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

Bachelor's 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