Back in the day it simply was Registration Day. Now it’s Gear Up Day and the aim is to help families prepare with the first day of the new school year on the horizon.
At Treadwell International Community School on the middle school side, Brandon Hill is the principal. He was ready for Gear Up Day on Tuesday.
“We had an opportunity … for our parents to be able to come in and (for us to) reassure our children what we want to do. We wanted to put a twist to it … make it into a community block party, where our families can receive the services they need as well,” said Hill.
That meant multiple agencies on-site “to support our families, our students, to provide them shots, dental care, healthcare, all the way to assisting our parents with jobs and things of that magnitude,” said Hill.
“We also have free haircuts, food trucks, bounce houses, all the different components that’s needed for our families. And why is this important for us?
“Because we know our students come in for academic achievement, but if we don’t service the entire child, then we ain’t gonna have success for this student to be a well-rounded citizen later on and down the road. So, on this day here, we have an opportunity to really put forth our best effort and not only support our children, but our families as well, our community.”
Hill said it’s important that “all of our stakeholders have opportunity to come meet each other often. … because we actually (have) a community school where we have a community resource center and a grocery store that also assists our families on a daily basis. And so, we are just here to really make sure we continue to motivate, uplift, and continue to build citizens for our community.”
Jason Carr is principal of the elementary side of Treadwell International Community School. Gear Up Day, he said, is “a name that we’ve been calling this for a few years, but registration day nonetheless. And so today is a day for parents who have not registered their students to be able to come in and see us speak with us.
Among the help provide was getting families set up with the accounts, which opens up a communication pathway to teachers and staff.
“We even have parents that have actually registered, but they’re coming for all of the information that our community partners have brought into us,” he said.
“We wanna make sure everyone’s registered so that we can enroll them in classes and have a great start to the, to the new year.”
Carr noted that “we were given the community school’s designation last year. And because we do have a wealth of students who are coming from various backgrounds, they might be coming from an English speaking background. They may be coming from a Latino heritage. We even have students that are coming to us from Nigeria and, and other students that come in and speak Swahili and different things like that.
“We have students that are Arabic speaking, we have students that are Vietnamese. So we are an international community. So hence Treadwell International Community Schools. We’re the elementary side and we’re partnered right next door with the middle school side.”
The day was good and busy, he said.
“We’ve had some of the most gracious and patient parents and so it’s been wonderful, but we’ve been able to pretty much answer everything we need to get some things fixed. …
“That’s what today is all about … getting issues resolved so that we can get the students in class.”
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