Guilford Parent Academy (GPA) hosted middle school parent volunteers and teachers at GPA’s first-ever Parent Engagement Summit at Bennett College this past Monday. The event included workshops on parent resources, parent-teacher communication, marketing your school and engaging hard-to-reach families. Nationally recognized Motivational Speaker Mychal Wynn headlined the event.

Parents, teachers work together to solve a problem during GPA's summit

Parent volunteers who attended are part of GPA’s grassroots parent coordinator program, which is being expanded to include all 24 middle schools this year. The program, which was implemented in the 18 PACE middle schools last year, allows GPA and GCS to select a parent volunteer in each school to assist with parent engagement priorities and opportunities. The program is offered as part of the PACE grant.

The grassroots parent coordinators can receive up to $150 a month to communicate with other parents about volunteer opportunities, lead parent-outreach activities, assist the school and GPA staff with planning and publicizing parent workshops and increase parent awareness of GPA.

The summit also included teachers from each middle school who will receive a stipend from GPA for their assistance in planning a parent workshop at their school.

“What an exciting day for Guilford Parent Academy,” said Lindsay Whitley, GPA director. “It was great to see a diverse group of parents and teachers come together and work toward a common goal, and that is to help parents help their children be successful. We can’t wait to see what this group of parents and teachers will plan for our families this year.”

The PACE project, short for Personalized Achievement, Curriculum and Environment, is part of a $35.2 million grant the district received from the U.S. Department of Education.