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Teachers, students and parents at Oakview Elementary School in Decatur, Georgia celebrated the successful end of another school year with a cookout.

Principal Rodney Mallory announced at the gathering in April that the University of Phoenix and the National Action Network (NAN) attended Family Day to announce that they are delivering resources that would enhance parental involvement and the relationship between the school and its community.

Oakview Elementary 1

Source: Nigel Roberts / Oakview Elementary School Family Day

Byron Jones, University of Phoenix chief financial officer, told the crowd that the university is donating financial support and resources to the school, including professional development training for Oakview’s teachers and the Strengthening Families program, which is a resiliency-based family skills training curriculum.

OAKVIEW ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 2

Source: Nigel Roberts / Oakview Elementary School Family Day

Mallory told NewsOne that encouraging parental involvement is a key to success for his students. To that end, his team organizes several events throughout the academic year to encourage parents to come to the school and meet with their child’s teacher, thus strengthen the family-school bond.

Strengthening that link is needed at schools in the county. DeKalb County, which has the third largest school district in Georgia, had the highest number of schools in the state with unsatisfactory culture in 2015, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

OAKVIEW ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 3

Source: Nigel Roberts / Oakview Elementary School Family Day

The University of Phoenix and NAN launched a similar program in January at Baltimore’s Booker T. Washington Middle School for the Arts. In 2016, the civil rights organization and the university conducted a four-city tour (Baltimore, Atlanta, Richmond, Va., and Columbia, S.C.), as a first step toward revitalizing the school-community relationship nationwide.

SEE ALSO:

University Of Phoenix Announces Partnership With Community & Education Leaders

Redeveloping Community Schools: Atlanta

Family-Centered Georgia School Enhances Parental Engagement  was originally published on newsone.com