One WillCo has started the School Cluster Volunteer Project to introduce ourselves and our organization to individual school administrators and to start building local relationships. Special thanks to Jennifer Cortez and Jeff Stewart who met with each of the principals in Franklin Special School District (FSSD) this spring to share our mission and learn more about how we can help them ensure racial equity in their schools.
Our goal this year is to bring this to Williamson County Schools (WCS), beginning with two school clusters: Centennial and Independence high schools and the middle and elementary schools that feed them.
How can I help? Volunteer to be a part of the school liaison team for the area where your kiddos attend school.
What do I have to do? Meet in teams of two with principals of the schools in your local cluster to share One WillCo’s mission and learn more about how we can help them ensure racial equity in their schools. Build and maintain trusted relationships with these education leaders to help us have even more impact in our community.
How do I do that?! Once the team is established, we will train you on how to represent One WillCo, express our values, and build relationships with the principal, guidance counselors, and others in the school as your students progress through the cluster. For your first two meetings, a member of the leadership team will join you to help model how these meetings should go. We are here to be a support system.
What’s the time commitment? The goal is to meet with each principal twice a year and each guidance counselor twice a year for a total of four visits yearly. With enough volunteers, each team will only be responsible for 2-3 schools.
When will this start? We plan to start reaching out to principals the 3rd week of August to start scheduling visits. We hope to have all of the initial meetings completed with the principals by the end of September.
Who is eligible? For the first phase, we will be focusing on the Centennial and Independence clusters, so any parent or guardian with students attending any of these schools is eligible to help.
Centennial Cluster includes:
Centennial High School
Page Middle School
Legacy Middle School
Clovercroft Elementary
Oak View Elementary
Winstead Elementary
ALC-Alternative Learning Center
Independence Cluster includes:
Independence High School
Heritage Middle School
Hillsboro Middle School
Heritage Elementary
Longview Elementary
Amanda H. North Elementary
Hillsboro Elementary
Pearre Creek Elementary.
If you have students in any of these schools, PLEASE email Jeff Stewart (jeff.stewart@onewillco.org). You’ll have an opportunity to ask questions and learn more before committing to volunteering. If you have another volunteer in mind to form your team, we can certainly keep duos together. If not, we’ll pair you with another like-minded parent/guardian in your area. Also, if you have students in FSSD and are willing to join Jeff Stewart’s team, please contact Jeff about that as well.
We are so excited to deepen our relationships with the schools in our community! But we simply can’t do it without you; there are far too many schools to cover. Thank you in advance for your help. Let’s go strengthen our public schools together!
Revida Rahman
P.S. If you have students in a WCS school that is not in one of these clusters, but you would like to be on the team when we roll this program out to your cluster, email Jeff to let him know!