|
City Platform Section II, Step 7:
"Encourage family involvement in schools by sponsoring "First Day" celebrations and providing release time for city employees when they attend parent-teacher conferences or other school events."
Mayors and councilmembers can support efforts to improve local schools by creating new opportunities to celebrate education and forge relationships between families and schools. This momentum can boost student attendance and parent and community involvement in the schools on the first day and throughout the school year.
City Examples
Nashville, Tenn.
Since 2000, Nashville Mayor Bill Purcell has sponsored an annual Mayor's First Day Festival featuring family fun, educational entertainment, and free school supplies and snacks. By 2005, this event attracted approximately 21,000 community parents, students, and teachers.
At the festival, Mayor Purcell reminds parents about the importance of accompanying their children to school. To make this possible, the mayor successfully pushed through civil service reforms to allow city employees three hours off on the first day to visit their children's schools, and an additional six hours throughout the year for parent-teacher conferences.
He has also encouraged other employers to follow suit by creating a "Corporate Honor Roll" of all the local employers offering release time for employees to visit their children's schools.
Learn More »
Back to Top ^
St. Louis, Mo.
In St. Louis, Mayor Francis Slay and the Board of Education President held a press conference to announce their "First Day, Every Day" initiative to promote pre-registration of students, build excitement about the new school year, and bolster student attendance and parent engagement. The mayor encouraged city employees to take their children to school on the first day.
In addition to allowing city workers with school-age children to take up to two hours of paid leave on the first day of school, the mayor called on other employers in the city to do the same. To generate further excitement about the school year, the school district held a Back to School Family Festival offering pre-registration, immunization and information on services for children in one location.
Mayor Slay also joined the superintendent, school board president and other school officials in greeting teachers, students, and parents at a number of city schools.
Back to Top ^
Resources
Back to Top ^
|