Alta Vista boosts parent involvement with Donuts with Dads event
Moms are often the ones to attend school events, but last Wednesday morning at Alta Vista Elementary a large crowd of dads showed up with their kids at the cafeteria to enjoy some fresh donuts with milk.
The event, called ‘Donuts with Dads,’ was created to increase parent involvement from both mom and dad.
“This the first of the year,” said Vanessa Reilly, English teacher and activities director at AVESD. “We are very excited to see the amount of dads here today with their kids having a good time.”
While the students and dads ate their flavored glazed donuts and drank their milk an interview was also taking place. Reilly said they decided to add on an extra activity besides just hanging out, and on the tables were interview questions in English and Spanish for the kids to ask their dads.
“Instead of just eating, they are also engaging the dads,” added Reilly. “We added the dad interview in English and Spanish so kids can ask [their dads] questions, because they might not know what their favorite song is or their favorite car. It’s academic also, because they are getting to see how their kid writes.”
School staff were in attendance welcoming parents and the students, and also passing out the 200 donuts from Sweet Nalani’s Bakery, and were engaging into conversations with the dads.
“It’s awesome, to see all of us dads and kids together at school,” said Jesus Rodriguez, father of Travino and Jesus Rodriguez.
Rodriguez said Donuts with Dads has helped him learn what’s going on at his sons’ school.
“It’s awesome, it feels great to be part of my kids’ education and I feel involved,” he added.
The event also helped Rodriguez realize he should be part of schooling events more often.
Not only were dads present, but other family members like uncles and older brothers were there to accompany the students as a dad figure.
“I came to accompany Griff,” said uncle Juan Granado. “This is a cool event for parents or other family members like I to make the kids feel supported by family.”
As Griff Caldero ate the frosting from the donut on his hand he said, “My uncle was finally able to see how my school cafeteria looks.”
The event has been growing over the three years since they started. Reilly mentioned the first two years they had about 25 dads show up, but this year they had 62 dads with 89 students in attendance.
“I think it’s pretty neat that they do this for us,” said David Alvarado, father of Ariana Alvarado. “It helps us as parents to be part of their education and for them to be more motivated to go to school.”
Alvarado added he is always working during school time, and this was the first time he was able to attend a school event.
This year Alta Vista will be having more parent events like Donuts with Dads, such as Goodies with Grandparents and Muffins with Moms.
“Our parents want to be involved, but they don’t know how to be involved,” said Reilly. “So we decided to start breakfast events with parents.”
Reilly mentioned there has been an increase in parent involvement over the last three years and she is really looking forward to the upcoming events.