(upbeat music) - We're now joined by Nicole Johnson, deputy superintendent of Newark Board of Education, and Argetina Aquino, who is a mother of three, and a parent liaison for a fascinating initiative called Newark Parent University.

I wanna thank both of you for joining us.

- Thank you.

- Thank you.

- Thank you for having us.

- Nicole, if you could, talk about what is North Parent University?

As we put up the website for people to find out more, please.

- We know at the district level, that engaging parents is a top priority at the federal, the state, and the local level.

And so in 2020, we launched our "The Next Decade Strategic Plan," which is in its three year of implementation right now.

There are six priorities and 35 strategies in our plan with parents and stakeholders being sort of the top priority.

We use title funds and local funds to expand our initiatives because throughout the pandemic, there was this heightened engagement and awareness of curriculum and teaching on the part of parents, and rightfully so, because in many instances, they were the teacher at home.

And so in 2020, we launched the Parent University.

It started as two sessions or two workshops per year in the fall and in the spring where we asked district staff, community partners to provide workshops for our families.

It has since evolved into this system-wide learning platform that has online courses, live courses, recorded courses on various topics.

And so we're really proud of that work and we've seen the impact, as Ms. Aquino will talk about as one of our parent liaisons, but it's something that we hope to continue and that's constantly evolving in our district in terms of how we engage our parents.

- Argetina, why did you get involved with as a Newark, excuse me, as a parent liaison with Newark Parent University?

Why'd you do that?

- Because I work at First Avenue School.

I'm a parent liaison at First Avenue School.

And as a district, we are lucky that every school has a parent liaison.

And we know how important it is having parent engaged in the child's academic learning.

The Parent University is a very important tool in how I do my job and how can I better serve the community, for being an online platform, where there are workshops, there are resources, there are a lot of information that equip parents with necessary information that they need to support their children.

I can say, it is a very great bridge, that it makes my job as a parent liaison much easier, by having, for instance, last week, we had a workshop.

So there are a lot of workshops in various topics, immigration- - Like?

- Like immigration like child abuse prevention workshops, health and wellness, you name it.

Like, bilingual workshops, how to support families that they have bilingual child, how to find resources.

And there are times where I can, not every time I have a person that will come to speak to my school, therefore, I go to Parent University and I choose a topic.

- Sure.

- I have parents coming and it provides a platform that makes my job easy to give information to parents.

- So Nicole, in many ways, it's a resource for parents and also what I saw here is one of the services which I particularly am in need of is math homework tutorials.

Please, Nicole, Ms. Johnson, talk about that because some of us are sitting here, "How do we help?"

- Yeah, absolutely.

- Go ahead.

- So again, for Parent University, not only do we use community partners for our workshops, but we use actual district staff.

So we use our math directors, our literacy directors, director of the office of bilingual education, special education.

And so, based on feedback from parents and surveys that we actually give them to ask, "Hey you know, what are you interested in learning more about?"

We then bring together our directors and say, here are some of the topics, or here are some of the sessions that parents have asked for.

They wanna know, how to help at home.

how to read with their child at home, how to fill out a lunch application.

We had a session on just how to fill out the lunch application and it's also recorded so if you miss it, you can log into Parent University and you can watch the 40-minute video on how to fill out the lunch application, how to fill out the Newark Enrolls application, post-secondary, what to expect after high school.

And so we have all these different workshops.

Some are live, some are recorded, but at any time you could log in as a parent and watch any of the videos at any time.

- Nicole, let me ask you this, is there any reason why this couldn't or shouldn't or wouldn't be a national model?

Parent University?

- Yeah, well, it's interesting you asked that because a few months ago, I, myself, was asked to speak by the US Department of Ed to talk about Parent University and what we're doing in our district as it relates to post-pandemic and really trying to engage parents and pretty much teach them like how to help us with their child.

And so I was asked to speak to a number of superintendents across the nation on how we used our funds, how we used local funds and federal funds for Parent University and what does that look like.

The other thing I wanna add though, so Parent University, yes, it's the online sort of platform piece which is one resource.

- Right.

- But what I said during that meeting with the US Department of Ed was, there's so many other facets, right?

So there are the parent liaisons.

The district has invested in a parent liaison at every single school and we have over 60 schools.

And that parent liaison, their role is to sort of be the liaison between the community and the school administration, right?

The second thing- - That's what Ms. Aquino does?

- That's what Ms. Aquino does, yes.

- Okay, just finish your point.

We've got about a minute left so finish your point, Nicole, I'm sorry.

- The second thing that superintendent also added since post-pandemic was the Superintendent's Council of Parents.

And he meets with these parents every other month.

- The superintendent, Roger Leon?

- Yes.

Yes.

Our superintendent, Roger Leon, meets with the Superintendent Council of Parents.

Those are our parent liaisons, our PTO leaders and other parents.

So it's really, how do we engage them on all levels.

- Real quick, before I let you go, Argetina, if you could, real quickly, how has it helped you be a better parent to your three children?

- One of the most fascinating things that Parent University gives is resources and information.

We all know that knowledge is a treasure that we will take forever, wherever we go.

And that is what Parent University is.

It gives us knowledge, empower us to use with the tools necessary so we can not only better serve us, but serve our children as well.

- Well said.

Newark Parent University.

Nicole, Argetina, I wanna thank you so much for joining us.

We appreciate it.

- Thank you so much.

- Thank you.

- Bye.

- You got it.

Stay with us, folks.

We'll be right back.

- [Narrator] One-On-One with Steve Adubato has been a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

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