V.S. 24 hosts culture and identity family forums

Valley Stream 24 promotes events that encourage bonding between parents and their children. The district prioritizes family forums, which are events designed to give Valley Stream 24 families the opportunity to have a better understanding and insight into their children’s education, providing them with tools and information to become more engaged with their children’s educational experience.

“One of the four pillars of Valley Stream 24 is family engagement. We pride ourselves on our efforts to increase parent engagement by collaborating with families and school staff to keep improving this connection,” said Superintendent Don Sturz. “It’s always an inspiring and collaborative experience for families to participate in our family forums. We truly have a great community of families and staff that are excited to actively participate in our children’s lives.”

The students and staff at Brooklyn Avenue Elementary School’s family forum had a theme of culture and identity with a gala red-carpet evening. Students and staff walked the red carpet and expressed their pride while engaging with the audience in creative clothing, flags, and details about their heritage. The celebration was coordinated by the Brooklyn Avenue Equity Team in partnership with the PTA.

At William L. Buck Elementary School, the family forum format invited students and families to Tapas and Talks where students had the opportunity to make scrapbook pages to illustrate their culture and identity. The highlight of the night was the scavenger hunt where participants were encouraged to find others with similarities and differences. William L. Buck’s families exchanged small plates of food and enjoyed a family dinner.

Family forum night at Robert W. Carbonaro Elementary School was a culture night. Families and students worked together to complete a flag to bring to school. They filled the flags with the languages they speak, colored in the flag, and drew or wrote the recipe for a national dish that best represented their culture. During the event, the students were asked to work with their families to create a template of a person that represented their culture with various materials.