A new Iowa City School District program will give another meaning to the term “home school.”
The district received grants to allow teachers to go on home visits starting this year as a way to better involve parents in students’ school lives — especially for families who do not normally engage in school activities.
Brian Bradley, a sixth-grade teacher at Kirkwood Elementary, 1401 Ninth St., Coralville, said his school will develop a program with the grant and he plans to get involved.
“I think with our population at Kirkwood, a lot of families don’t feel connected to the school,” he said. “And this is a chance to get out, visit with them, and show them that we have their kid’s best interest at heart.”
The School District received a $1.2 million Safe Schools Healthy Students grant, and the Parent/Teacher Home Visit Project is only a small piece of the comprehensive grant.
Though kindergarten through sixth-grade teachers are participating, teachers and staff will focus more on kindergarteners and families new to the district.
“We have so many new families every year that we want to ease that transition,” Bradley said.
District officials are modeling their pilot program on a similar one in San Francisco, said Joan Vandenberg, the district’s youth and family-development coordinator.
She has worked with the elementary-school principals to structure the program.
“Home visits are really just for the teachers to get to know the parents,” she said. “If they get to know one another, it strengthens the communication.”
The district-wide effort to improve school-parent relationships has seen 40 teachers and staff sign up.
“I think this is something that teachers have wanted to do, but it has been about trying to find the time and structure where they can be able to do this,” said Mary Bontrager, the principal of Twain Elementary, 1355 DeForest Ave.
Bontrager said all Twain teachers can sign up for one or both of the two Thursday afternoons available for home visits. They will be paid for their time.
“The purpose is to build that relationship with families and to answer any questions about our school, share any information that they need, and just to get to know the families,” Bontrager said. “We also want to make sure that families feel very welcome to come to Twain.”
Bontrager said with that invitation comes a welcome to participate in events such as family night and parent/teacher conferences.
Those involved are hopeful it will be a welcoming experience for both students and teachers.
“I am really excited about it,” Vandenberg said. “I think this is an opportunity to do something that we know works.”