Family Enagement Team offers individual support to GCA families each day...but that's not all.
The Family Engagement Team
By: Michelda Watson, Family Engagement Director
FELs support GCA families in so many ways, but one of the main ways is through our Strong Start/Onboarding Program. This program serves two purposes; it is the building block of relationships with our families, and it prepares families for success at Georgia Cyber Academy. We provide every family a welcome call and meet with each family individually to provide a very detailed orientation to our school. We also provide them with a wonderful resource of a Strong Start Course in Canvas that they have access to all year.
2. Re-Registration
FELs support our operations team by helping with re-registration. Family Engagement Liaisons (FELs) make sure each of our families is re-registered for the following school year.
3. Enrollment
FELs support our Enrollment and Records department by assisting with enrollment. We have three FELs who, in addition to carrying a caseload of families, also support enrollment by reviewing paperwork, and helping process applications, as well as support other FELs who may have questions about a family’s enrollment process.
4. Testing
FELs support GCA’s Assessment Department too! Many FELs serve as site coordinators, attendance monitors, examiners, proctors, and any other way needed during the Milestones testing season. In addition, in the 2021-2022 school year we also developed a FET Testing Team. This team of only fourteen (our FET tutors help support testing) not only have a reduced caseload of families, but they handle testing of new students before school starts, as well as makeup tests for MAP and Interim Assessments during the school year.
5. Tutoring
6. Student Attendance
FELs support the Compliance team by reaching out to our families when they are showing missing attendance. In particular, we call them when they reach two days of missing attendance to remind them of the importance of entering attendance daily.
7. Student Engagement
FELs support the Student Attendance Committee by calling and informing families of meetings and advocating for families when necessary.
8. Student Withdrawals
FELs support our teachers and the Operations team by helping to process student withdrawals.
9. Cross-Collaboration
FELs collaborate with every department in our school by working with them to support our families at every level.
10. The most important thing FELs do—we LOVE our families—and are passionate about supporting them in any and every way possible.
So many of our FELs go above and beyond their daily responsibilities. Here are a few extra things some of them do:
· Open office sessions for families to receive additional support.
· Send birthday cards and/or recognition cards to their students.
· Play show and tell with their students, and they LOVE them!!
· Offer FEL hangouts as a time to get together!
· Send out a monthly newsletter.
· Make engaging and entertaining bi-weekly videos for their families, so they are kept up to date with what is going on in the school.
Our FELs are truly amazing, and they love supporting our families. I feel very privileged to be a part of this hardworking team, and we are passionate about supporting our families! We strive to help all our families find success in online education. We invest in our families and are thrilled to watch them rise up, aim high, and soar at Georgia Cyber Academy. We feel that one of our 2022 graduates, Mrs. Hunter W., shares why the relationships we have with our families are so important.
Mrs. Watson has served in many areas of education since 1988. She graduated from Southern New Hampshire University with a B.S. in Organizational Leadership. Mrs. Watson has been involved with multiple facets of Georgia Cyber Academy (GCA) since her arrival as a Learning Coach in 2007. She officially joined the Family Engagement Team as a Liaison in 2010, after three years as an engaged, passionate Learning Coach who was excited about GCA's unique method of delivering K–12 education virtually. Since then, she has worked with all grade levels within FET and has served as a FEL lead for both middle school and high school where she helped design and implement the school's FEL program. Mrs. Watson served as the Family Academic Support Team (FAST) Assistant Director for two years, assisting in overseeing the team’s various programs. She has served as the Family Engagement Director for the past five years where she works hard to reach her ultimate goal for all positions within the Family Engagement Team to support GCA's families, ultimately leading to their success within GCA's virtual environment.