CUPE Letter to School Board: Community Engagement
April 16, 2024 — CUPE sent the following letter to members of the Charlottesville School Board:
“Warm greetings from Charlottesville United for Public Education (CUPE)!
As engaged community members deeply invested in the success and inclusivity of our public education system, we recently tuned in to a School Board meeting where the sentiments expressed by several members resonated with us. The call for inclusive dialogue, innovative approaches, and increased community involvement struck a chord with us. We would like to echo the sentiments of several members who said: “We need to hear from everyone,” “We need to do things differently than we’ve always done,” and “We need to go out in the community” to hear directly from families.
Our iterative conversations with community members and other partner organizations indicate the following:
Meetings held solely at 5pm at CHS are difficult for people to attend given work, sports and other after-school commitments.
Typical meeting agendas provide limited and unpredictable public comment period options.
Many people are uncomfortable speaking to a large group in a formal, public setting.
Online, mass surveys work for collecting specific data and feedback but aren’t effective in every scenario.
The addition of the Mini Minutes from Board meetings has been helpful to keep people updated when they cannot attend or tune in. (It should be noted that while helpful, this represents a one-way transfer of information, as opposed to two-way communication flow).
Charlottesville United is committed to complementing district efforts to broaden and diversify the ways in which the community is engaged, as we agree there are opportunities to improve the quantity and quality of this engagement. Therefore, CUPE is ready and willing to support the School Board and CCS in its community engagement efforts. This could take the form of:
Promoting and/or co-sponsoring events outside of the official monthly School Board meetings
Providing childcare, translation and/or facilitation at these events
Assisting with more regular pop-up style opportunities at school and community events
On a related front, we want to make you aware of our new “Community Engager” initiative. We are recruiting and paying caregivers to collect feedback from families about their child(ren)’s experience in CCS. We plan to recruit caregivers from across the community who represent a lived experience at each school. This could be another vehicle to get feedback from a diverse set of stakeholders. We will be reaching out to Beth Cheuk soon about the ways in which this work can be in service of the district as a whole.
In closing, it is clear that we need more tools in the community engagement toolbox for our public schools. CUPE stands ready to align with and support your forthcoming efforts on this front. Please let us know if a School Board or CCS representative would be available to share your plans with us in the coming weeks, as we would appreciate the opportunity to discuss with you how we can be most useful in the immediate and longer term.”
Yours in Partnership,
Charlottesville United Advisory Committee
via - Sandra Aviles
Community Organizer
Charlottesville United for Public Education