Sampson Middle works to build relationships

Looking to build deeper parental engagement and to increase understanding of school resources for both students and parents, Sampson Middle staff hosted Curriculum Night at the school this past Wednesday.

Curriculum Night isn’t new for Clinton City Schools, but Sampson Middle Principal Dr. Tony Faison said there’s been a much bigger emphasis on the event the past few years. The reason, it’s effective in not only building relationships but also as an informative platform to show parents deeper insight into just what’s going on within their child’s daily education.

One of the important takeaways from Faison was informing parents about what it means for Sampson Middle to be designated a Title I school.

“The state says that we must share with the families what a Title I school, is, which we are, is,” he said. “Part of what I did was explained to them what that means and what we use Title I money for. It was about showing parents the importance of them knowing what a Title I is and to especially let them know that even though we are a Title I school our children can still excel.”

A Title I school receives federal funding to support its programs and help students meet academic standards. Title I funding is available to schools with high percentages of students from low-income families.

Building relationships was another key part of Curriculum Night. There were multiple sessions during the event where attendants had opportunities for face-to-face interactions with Sampson Middle teachers.

There was a full array of teachers available from math and English teachers, to exploratory teachers such as band, agriculture, even career and technical education (CTE) teachers were on board. There were instructional details on the AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) program, school improvement plan slideshows, Q & A’s, a book fair, simple get to know your teacher presentations and more.

“Curriculum night is something that we feel is a vital importance for all of our students and parents to understand what’s happening in their child’s lives on a daily basis,” Kenan Lanier, SMS assistant principal, said. “They need that exposure just as much as the children do during the school day, for the accountability aspect of it. We want our students to be held accountable, and parents are going to help support that accountability piece for their own children as well.”

“Being a Title I school, we wanted parents to get an opportunity to meet the teachers so they could ask them any questions or voice concern they may have,” Faison said. “In this case today (Wednesday), we’re going to give out report cards, so if they have any questions, they can ask the teachers right there or set up a meeting.”

“Not all the time students are truthful to parents, but I tell you, when you put stuff in black and white and writing, it proves the point, so I think it’s very beneficial,” he added. “As I walked around, some of them were grabbing me and asking questions, not only about Title I or report cards, but maybe some other things that they are doing.”

Making connections with students and parents is what Faison said was not only the purpose of Curriculum Night, but also the major goal since Faison became principal.

“My thing is just being able to talk with the parents face-to-face them to let them know who I am, most know me but I don’t know who they are until they introduce themselves,” he said. “These past two years have been a good two years with parents in terms of building relationships with them. I’ve even built some with parents I thought I couldn’t, it’s been rewarding.

Faison continued, “My job three years ago was to turn the school culture and climate around, and that takes three to five years to do that. This is my third year but I can already see that it’s turning.”

Lanier expressed her positivity in the event, stating how working together improves communication and education.

“It’s a great exposure more than anything, and we want to make sure parents are aware of what’s happening every day,” Lanier added. “I’m the assistant principal, so my job is to just support my principal and our teachers and just help them out in any way I can to make SMS the best learning environment it could possibly be.”

That value was also shared by administrator intern Sharnee White who further alluded to the need for relationship building.

“I think this event is important for our families to get to meet our teachers who had interactions with the curriculum,” she said. “It helps them to understand where our students are going and where they need to be for the future. It also tells our families where we are as a school and our goals for where we would like to be by the end of the year. I think our families, our teachers and our students enjoyed the relationship buildings that this also contributed to.”

Seeing as parents where a huge underlining focus of Curriculum Night what were their thoughts on the event? For Thelton Springfield it remains important to him and his Trey as attending the event was a regular occurrence for them.

”It was very informative about the current curriculum and we look forward to it,” he said. “I was actually shocked when we pulled up in the parking lot, I wasn’t expecting it to be hard to find a parking spot. We always come and I’d definitely encourage those that didn’t to come the next time because it really is very informative.”

While there was a decent crowd Faison noted the turnout this year wasn’t as big as it’s been in the recent years, even so, they achieved their goal.

“We’ve held the curriculum night event plenty in the past but we really put an emphasis on it I’d say the last maybe three or four years,” Faison said. “Last year we had a bigger turnout, we had over 100 something show but this year we still had a good turnout, considering.”

“Actually, one parent last year, I recruited to be on the Parental/Community Advisory Council,” he added. “She’s back this year and getting ready for our first meeting on Nov. 5th, that’s an example of exactly what this all means.”