CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted more than just education, and CMCSS is working to re-engage parents and students in a normal school environment.

“We all know the pandemic disrupted a lot of things, and one of these things was stakeholder engagement,” said Anthony Johnson, chief communications officer for the Clarksville-Montgomery County School System. “Folks were less prone to want to come to buildings, and also some of our schools sometimes did not have capacity.”

Gathering information

At this week’s School Board meeting, Johnson told board members two surveys were sent out during the winter, one to parents and one to educators.

“We had 11,000 responses, which equates to one-third of our families, which is an above average response rate,” he said.

Johnson said three quarters of the district’s educators responded to the survey.

While 98.7% of parents felt like they understood their role in helping their child, only 88.3% of parents felt supported by their child’s school.

“As far as knowing where to go to receive answers to questions about their child’s education, only 89.7%” felt confident about where to go, Johnson reported.

“We all know that in order to improve student outcomes, our families have to be engaged,” he said.

Communicating with families

Jessica Goldberg, director of communications and marketing, told the board the communications team has been discussing ways they can better communicate with families.

“As we continue to prepare for new students, we are making sure those communication plans are in place,” she said.

Goldberg said being from a military family herself, she understood the importance of having effective communication plans in place.

“When we moved into Clarksville, I knew that it was really important for us to understand what the district was about, who we should reach out to and just kind of get some kind of understanding of what our children would be experiencing when they were at school,” she said. “We want to make sure we have that in place for our families today.”

Goldberg said last year, the communications team spent time reviewing existing communications that were in place and then began to make improvements.

“Some of the things we made enhancements to over the past year were the district calendar, the district website, and the district social media.”

For this next school year, Goldberg said the district’s marketing team will continue to grow each school’s individual school social media pages as well as implement a new form of communication.

“The next thing we are going to do is develop and dispatch a family district-level newsletter,” she said. Goldberg said the communications team has already been sending out an employee newsletter.

“We are looking at how we can develop and implement this for families,” she said.

CMC Foundation Plans

But reengaging with the community is about more than working with parents and students. The district is also working on reengaging and lifting the morale of teachers and staff.

Robin Burton, executive director of the CMC Education Foundation, told the board she had been tasked with developing a three-to-five-year strategic plan for the foundation.

Part of that plan is to show the district’s educators just how much they are appreciated.

One idea was a “teacher morale grant program that’s had really great feedback,” Burton said. “So in August we will be implementing that program.”

Burton said there is another new program in the works also.

“We really would like to develop a scholarship program specifically for CMCSS students,” she said.

Burton said the foundation’s board will develop the criteria on whether those scholarships cover four-year degrees or two-year certificates.

“I am a big believer all of our children have equal opportunity,” she said.

The next board meeting will be held 6 p.m., June 28 at 621 Gracey Ave.