WCPSS Talks Community Engagement, but Where Are the Results?

The Wake County Board of Education’s Community Engagement Committee spent nearly two hours discussing redesigned websites, an upcoming engagement summit, and the district’s Community Partnership Mapping Initiative. Each may have value, but the meeting highlighted a familiar WCPSS problem: plenty of discussion about programs and participation, but far fewer answers about whether those efforts are producing measurable results.

Chief Communications Officer Lisa Luten presented the district’s redesign of more than 200 school websites. The project ran from January through July, with the district acknowledging that only about 80 percent of the work was expected to be completed before school began. Officials also acknowledged that school employees put substantial time into the transition, including summer and after school work, while receiving no stipends for maintaining website content. That raises a basic question: if centralization was supposed to reduce school workload, how much work was actually eliminated?

The discussion also exposed differences between magnet and base schools. Magnet schools have coordinators who can devote time to photography and marketing, while most base schools do not have comparable staffing. Dr. Wing Ng pointed out that information about special needs programs was still missing from some school pages. Cheryl Caulfield said she had difficulty finding teacher contact information and noted that faculty sections appeared empty in some cases. These are not minor details when one of the redesign’s primary goals is supposed to be making information easier for families to find.

The district highlighted website traffic, positive feedback, resource fair participation, and favorable reviews of its community partnership training. But those are activity measures, not outcome measures. How many families successfully found a needed service through the community map? How many schools regularly use it? How many new partnerships resulted from it? How many parents can now find information or reach staff more easily than before?

Perhaps the most revealing discussion came from Toshiba Rice near the end of the meeting. Rice raised concerns about parents having difficulty reaching schools and suggested that the board develop actual listening sessions where families could bring concerns directly to board members. Caulfield also suggested making Board Advisory Council meetings easier for the public to find.

That is an important admission for a committee devoted to community engagement. WCPSS already has websites, surveys, summits, maps, newsletters, professional development, resource fairs, advisory councils, and community partners. Yet board members are still trying to figure out how to create a straightforward way for families to speak directly to them and be heard.

WCPSS does not appear to have a shortage of engagement initiatives. What is missing is clearer accountability for whether they work. The district should define measurable goals, publish the results, and acknowledge where programs fall short. Community engagement should ultimately be measured by whether families can get answers, reach their schools, find needed resources, and influence decisions, not by how many initiatives can be presented at a committee meeting.