Ep 64 | It Takes a Village, but What's Plan B?

SPEAKER_01 0:00

On the United Way side, we have 211. So that's a call-in phone number for families. So if our families are struggling with rent or with food or any type of social service, they can call 211, which is run by United Way. And United Way is going to connect them with those resources they need. Because what's important to us is that the students feel successful and secure, and that when they come to school, they can concentrate on their education and not all those outside things that disrupt their daily life. And 211 greatly helps with that.

SPEAKER_00 0:42

Welcome to the Voices United in Education podcast. Each week we showcase the teachers, administrators, and community members who go the extra mile to contribute to the success of every student in Escambi County. You'll meet the real people behind the titles and learn about the amazing resources to support every student's success. They say it takes a village to raise a child, but in today's world, the villagers are busy, tired, and often fighting an uphill battle with rising housing and living costs. Finding the village and its resources can feel like another item on an already very long to-do list. My next guest is the Director of Enrollment Services and Coordinator of Student Services. He wears many hats, but today he's going to share about a special partnership with United Way that makes everyone's load lighter. UWF grad, community enthusiast, all in for students, Chris McFarland. Thanks for being here.

SPEAKER_01 1:42

Thank you. I appreciate you having me.

SPEAKER_00 1:45

When I say like you're all in on students, I mean you really are, because not only did you graduate from high school in Pensacola, got all three of your degrees here, but you've been in this position for 16 years.

SPEAKER_01 1:59

Correct. So I'm currently working in Enrollment Services, which used to be called School Choice. But we've expanded and we do so much more than just student transfers now. Plus, we're very involved with the community as the school district is, supporting a lot of events through the foundation, through United Way. And now this year, adding our social work department to our group, which is also giving us the ability to reach out even further into the community.

SPEAKER_00 2:28

So you get to see really all the sides of, you know, how everything works, which I think is so neat. And to have someone like you who has so much experience, I think is really valuable. But I wanted to ask you what you thought was special about Escambia County for you that you would put so many roots down here.

SPEAKER_01 2:47

Absolutely. So I've lived here since I was in high school. Obviously, moved here because my father was in the military, which is how a lot of us get here. And so I went to high school here, I went to college here. While I was in college, I was a youth pastor at a couple of the churches here, taught at Pensacola High School before I had this job. So I very much have that connection with all parts of the community and that the needs that they have and how the school district can help partner with all of these agencies like United Way and the Foundation to make sure our students and their families have everything they need so that the students can be successful in their educational journey.

SPEAKER_00 3:30

Well said. I don't think I could say that any more, any better. United Way is a super big organization. So when you say Escambia County Public Schools partners with them, can you kind of give us an idea of what that looks like on the micro level?

SPEAKER_01 3:42

Absolutely. So the United Way of West Florida serves both Escambia County and Santa Rosa County and has representation from the school district in both of those counties. So I previously was on the board, and now Wanda Cotick, who is our community involvement coordinator, is on the board. So we are well represented with United Way. What United Way does directly for the school district is our Steff the Bus program, which is our school supply drive that we always do in July, heavily supported by Channel 3 and some of our larger corporations like Navy Federal, Florida Power and Light, Sacred Heart are all helping to support that Step the Bus initiative. We also do Day of Caring every October. Many of our schools are submitting projects to Day of Caring, and Day of Caring comes out into the school to complete those projects. So it could be a landscaping beautification project. It could be going into the building and reading books to the students. It could be helping them just organize some part of the building. But Day of Caring is also a large way that United Way is supporting the school district.

SPEAKER_00 4:58

So United Way pays for the resources to execute the projects on Day of Caring.

SPEAKER_01 5:04

So what United Way does is provide the labor and the community groups. The schools are supplying if they were need like landscaping materials or interior materials. Those are being provided either by the school district or through the foundation. Um, while United Way provides all the marketing, all the organization, all the manual labor teams for those schools.

SPEAKER_00 5:30

And first off the bus, are they providing the materials or do they have a different role in that?

SPEAKER_01 5:36

So United Way is really just facilitating the program at the three Walmarts. And then families are coming and providing the actual materials. So we put out a lot of marketing as to what each school would like to have to supply to their students. Those are collected as families are coming in and out of those Walmarts where they're all day from six in the morning till six at night. We have our football players there who are organizing and collecting boxes. We have a bus at every United Way that's parked out in front of the United Way. And our bus drivers are there communicating and interacting with all the families while they come in and out of the Walmarts. And this past year, we were able to collect uh 24 pallets of donated supplies as well as $24,000 in monetary donations that all goes towards our stuff the bus drive. And families are able to reach out to their local school. And if the school doesn't already have the supplies that that family needs, they can reach out to me and I will help them get those supplies.

SPEAKER_00 6:40

So the school and sometimes you play matchmaker with the resources in the families?

SPEAKER_01 6:45

That's correct. So the families are told to reach out directly to the schools, to their guidance department, to their navigator, and we will help those students get the supplies they need if they don't already have them.

SPEAKER_00 6:57

When you say supplies, or I mean, I think of like the traditional backpack, crayons, pencils. Is it am I missing anything?

SPEAKER_01 7:03

So correct. We give them backpacks, we give them pencils, pens, notebooks, art supplies. If they have a need for like clothing, shoes, we do have a uh closet for that. And we can supply some of those. Some of our schools are uniform schools. So sometimes those families also need the uniforms. So that's where we can bring in our social workers or our navigators. This past year, we did a drive where we collected neck ties for all of our older students that have to do dress for success events. And we collected neck ties for them. So, you know, you don't want to buy a tie when you only have to wear it one day at school. So we collected ties for them to have for their dress for success events.

SPEAKER_00 7:52

Oh, that's really cool. Do you have a feeling, having been over all of this for so long and in the community and with one foot and one foot in the school district? Do you feel like one program kind of tugs at your heart more than another or is more successful that stands out than another?

SPEAKER_01 8:12

So I do think there are two, one on the foundation side and one on the United Way side. On the United Way side, we have 211. So that's a call-in phone number for families. So if our families are struggling with rent or with food or any type of social service, uh they can call 211, which is run by United Way. And United Way is going to connect them with those resources they need. Because what's important to us is that the students feel successful and secure, and that when they come to school, they can concentrate on their education and not all those outside things that disrupt their daily life. And 211 greatly helps with that. On the foundation side, we have our teachers' grants for excellence. So the foundation is able to provide our teachers with small grants to help them get the things they need for their classrooms so that the students can have interactive, engaging projects and learning that the school just isn't able to support or provide funding for. And that has been an awesome program for the school district where those funds are going directly to the teacher for the projects they create and want to implement in their classrooms.

SPEAKER_00 9:25

Oh, wow. That's really interesting because you hate to hear about the teachers spending their own money of their modest salaries on their classrooms.

SPEAKER_01 9:34

Correct. And we're we've been working greatly on that. We're also providing what we call a teacher resource room. That's going to be provided through the foundation as well, located at our warehouse where teachers are going to be able to go in and get the supplies they need. Currently it's being piloted, so it's not open to every school yet, but um it will be open to every school once we get it going.

SPEAKER_00 9:59

So is that just a matter of implementation, or do parents who are listening to this need to show demand in order to get the supply?

SPEAKER_01 10:08

So we really don't. I mean, if we don't really ask that they show anything if they need supplies and the school has them. Typically, the school has more than enough supplies for the students. And all of the schools know if they don't have something that is widely being requested, they can reach out to us and we're gonna do everything we can to try to get that to them.

SPEAKER_00 10:28

Okay. So it's not something I mean that the parents would have to request in order to make sure it finds their way to their school, that resource room that you were talking about. They will eventually get there.

SPEAKER_01 10:38

Yeah. Typically the student just goes to their guidance counselor or their navigator and requests something, and they all have a closet that we fill at the beginning of the school year. So if it's not already there, there is a process in place where they can request it.

SPEAKER_00 10:56

So why the community agency and district collaboration? Why is that important? Why not just coordinate, you know, ground roots kind of through the community that way? Why is it important to partner with an organization like United Way to accomplish these results?

SPEAKER_01 11:16

Well, the school district very much wants to be part of the community. We don't want the students just coming to school, going home, and there not be a connection there. So as a community partner, we want to make sure that we're aligning with United Way, with the foundation, with Mana Food Bank. Every November we do a big drive for Mana Food Bank. We want to be part of the community. These families are our family. We spend more time with their students than some of them do. And we just want to make sure that the students are happy, they're healthy, they have what they need, and they enjoy coming to school every day. We have 37,000 students in the school district. Many of them don't need any community agency help, but in this area, a lot of them do. So we want to make sure that the community understands, the county understands, the city understands, that we're here to partner with them. And we want to be part of what's going on in the community. We want to be part of everything United Way is doing to support the community, and we want to be part of what the foundation is doing to support our classrooms.

SPEAKER_00 12:22

Can you think of a story, an incident that stands out to you where this sort of partnership and the resources that came from it made the difference for a student or for a family?

SPEAKER_01 12:36

So we have a lot of those types of examples, many of them in our elementary schools where kids are just starting out, just learning. And a lot of times the parents either don't understand how to get the students started or, you know, what's needed. And so I don't work directly in the school, so I don't have a specific student example, but I know many schools reach out to us and to United Way and even to the foundation and are very grateful for what we offer. Um, right now our big priority is on attendance, and we're looking at ways to provide incentives and class parties to make sure that our attendance is getting better and growing. As you know, with COVID, attendance kind of slipped down, and we're trying to bring all that back. And so many of the things that we do right now, September, for example, was what we called Attendance Awareness Month. That was a national initiative. But we really embraced that to make sure that all the kids knew how important it was to come every day to attend and to be there. And so that's kind of the things that we do in collaboration with the social workers and with the foundation to make sure that we are making a difference.

SPEAKER_00 13:57

What is the reason that students would not be attending school?

SPEAKER_01 14:02

Well, part of it with COVID was kind of uh habit forming, meaning during COVID, we were educating from home, we were excusing COVID absences, and you know, habits form. And so what we want to make sure is that the new habit is we're coming every day, we're experiencing all the things that the schools have to offer, and that we're making an impact with our teachers, with the staff, and with our family. But I do think that part of it was just the routine or the habit people got into during a three-year COVID pandemic, and we just have to kind of regroup, retransition, and get back to what we consider to be the norm, which is coming to school every day.

SPEAKER_00 14:52

Sure. And, you know, we you are trying to make the uh experience of going to school fun and engaging for the students so they want to. I guess I have a hard time understanding why a parent who may even work from home would want their kid at home. Wouldn't they want to send them away to school so that they can do their work? I I feel like I'm missing some information here because maybe I'm not a parent or because I'm certainly not in your shoes and having the benefit of seeing the whole picture.

SPEAKER_01 15:22

Right. Well, a lot of time it is, you know, some of our schools start very early. Some of them get out very late. And so it's just really making sure that your family routine and your family dynamic includes schooling. And that's what we work with families on every day. You know, we want all the kids to go to the school where they want to go, where they feel safe, where they're happy. We're a very big school choice district where we allow families to choose where they want to send their student. And the reason we do that is because we want them to enjoy that educational experience. It's not just about learning, it's about networking with other students. It's about extracurricular activities, it's about sports. We want them to get the whole picture and not just the academic experience, but to be able to look back on all of their school years and say, yes, I had a very positive experience.

SPEAKER_00 16:18

You're a parent of two, and you worked with a lot of parents over the years. How does the United Way partnership become part of the village for those parents? Because in the intro, you know, I talked about how it they say it takes a village to raise a child, but I mean, my friends who have children, they're tired. They really need that support. How does this partnership supply that support for them?

SPEAKER_01 16:44

So United Way has done a very good job of making sure that they're visible, they're out there. And while we only concentrate wholly on these two programs of stuff the bus and day of caring, United Way is really there every day to support families and the needs that we have. They're very responsive to us when we reach out to them. We just really have a great partner with them. And a few years ago, when they added Santa Rosa and the Santa Rosa School District came on board, that strengthened the collaboration even more because now our school district, the Santa Rosa School District, and the United Way of West Florida are all working together to make sure that the whole area is supported. And that benefits everyone because these successful students are going out into the community. They're getting jobs, they're now becoming volunteers and helping where they were helped as youngsters.

SPEAKER_00 17:42

So it's full circle.

SPEAKER_01 17:43

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 17:44

That's awesome. Is there anything else that you want to share about this partnership or any of the events? Anything that parents need to know about the resources that are available?

SPEAKER_01 17:55

So parents really just need to know that the school district has a community engagement office. We have the Escambia Public Schools Foundation, and we have our office was the enrollment services office. Those offices are open every day, and they're here to support, collaborate, whatever you need. Plus, each of our schools has what we call a navigator who is a social service worker. Plus, we have our guidance counselors. So we're trying to infuse as much into the community as we can to make sure that all of our families who have needs know where to go and know that we do support them.

SPEAKER_00 18:35

So those phone numbers of the first resources that you mentioned, I can put those in the episode description so that there's a nice little bookmark for parents to go to. And then, of course, the 211 that you mentioned.

SPEAKER_01 18:47

Absolutely. So you can put the phone numbers if you go to scambuschools.org right on the main page. You can click on enrollment services. That's our website, and that helps the parents as well. We're open every day from 7:30 to 4:30. From July 27th till the first day of school, we saw 1,400 families in our office. Wow. So, I mean, the families know that we're there, we're there to support them, and we're there to help them. Whether it's home school, private school, public school, our new scholarships, which is the Family Empowerment Scholarship. We handle all of that through enrollment services to help the families get the services that they need.

SPEAKER_00 19:26

Okay, awesome. Well, thank you so much for sharing this. This is awesome.

SPEAKER_01 19:30

Absolutely. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 19:33

Thanks for listening. Be sure to subscribe and share. Voices United in Education is a production of the Scambby County Public Schools.