For information on the 2024-25 budget update and the contract with HIL Consultants, as well as the 2025-26 budget request, check here.
The Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools Board of Education heard an update on family engagement programs during their meeting on Tuesday night.
The Family Engagement Department is responsible for supporting parents and families to make sure they receive equitable access to opportunities and resources throughout their child’s academic experience. The department’s CARES Team is tasked with everything from organizing professional development opportunities for parent and family engagement coordinators to hosting events with community partners to providing emergency transportation and home visits for students in need.
This year, the team has held workshops for families on topics like college readiness, financial literacy, behavioral health management, and mental health supports. About 1,100 attendees have been served by these sessions, and recent efforts to provide more of them through digital streaming have significantly increased their reach.
Board Member Richard Watts praised the work the department does, particularly noting that support from the CARES Team plays an instrumental role behind the scenes to prepare students for end-of-year exams by eliminating undue burdens. While their impact isn’t always obvious to outside observers, family engagement professionals are key to keeping the district’s engine running.
“It does not show up in a school report card, but if this is not done correctly and properly and with love and care, then we will have a deficit,” Watts said.
Also on the board’s agenda for the evening were:
- A performance by students from the Reynolds High School theatre program
- Recognitions for Teacher Appreciation Week, students who earned flagship scholarships, military academy appointments, military enlistments, perfect attendance awards, FAPA Scholarships, and Teaching Fellow Scholarships, Celebrate the Mouse biovideo essay winners, students who earned superior ratings at this year’s Music Adjudication Performances, Maya Angelou Essay award winners, Clean and Green Award winners, winners from the “How I See It” deeper learning collaboration with the Pulitzer Center, and the district’s 2025 Poet Laureate
- Updates on traffic patterns for 2025 graduation ceremonies and both this year’s and next year’s budget processes
- Approval of a budget request for the 2025-26 school year, class size waivers at Speas Global Elementary School and Jefferson Elementary School, debt service on 2013 lottery funds, the remaining state allocated low wealth supplement for K-12 teachers, a county allocated market study on pay increases and one-time payments for teacher assistants, and several other action items
- Denial of a change order for the S&ME contract for Brunson Elementary School
The Board of Education will meet again on Tuesday, May 27 at 6:30 pm.