AISD awarded $330K Kellogg grant

The Kellogg Foundation is awarding the Austin Independent School District $330,000 for a nine-month planning initiative to build better communication with families whose children attend schools in the Rundberg area. AISD officials said the project includes training school staff and parents on community engagement strategies at Hart, McBee, Padron and Wooldridge elementary schools and at the Lucy Read Pre-Kindergarten Demonstration School. Trained staff and volunteers will then conduct home visits, on-campus meetings and interviews of parents and families. During the nine-month initiative, AISD will lead a community engagement effort to cultivate relationships with families. Officials said this will help the district better understand barriers, gaps in service and untapped assets within the Rundberg neighborhood. They added that the  results will inform a second phase of collaborative, community-driven program development and implementation, and will also bolster ties among families, the community and school staff at the five schools.