Taking Involvement Online

A parent puts her technology skills to work to increase involvement and improve the school.

by Patty Catalano

01/22/2014

Amy McKenzie

Webmaster
Blessed Sacrament Home and School Association, Sandy, Utah

 

Best known for: Supplying an array of talent and technical expertise to her children’s school while enhancing the school’s volunteer process. McKenzie manages the HSA’s website and chairs a committee on the Blessed Sacrament School Board. She also assists with parent group activities and helps in both of her sons’ classrooms.

Self-taught techie: Although McKenzie hadn’t ever built a website from scratch before, last year she launched one for the HSA. Besides making volunteer opportunities more accessible to parents, the new site made it easier to track each family’s annual requirement of 20 service hours; parents no longer have to record their hours in a 5-inch binder in the school office. She acquired much of her knowledge about website tools while working on training sessions for her clients. “I had a steep learning curve and at times still get stuck on things,” she admits.

Key board position: As the chairwoman of the strategic planning committee, McKenzie and about nine other parent volunteers carry out the school’s five-year strategic plan. Goals include expanding extracurricular activities and looking into options to pay for a science and arts lab. Additionally, the school board is creating a technology committee to address work that needs to be completed.

Sharing files: McKenzie hopes to pass on the webmaster’s duties so she can dedicate more time to her school board position. “I am currently doing that training with my [website] committee and slowly have passed skills and tasks to these new folks,” she says. Also in the works is a manual for the site. It includes step-by-step instructions and images detailing how to perform administrator duties.

Dedicated server: McKenzie worked more than 700 hours last year at Blessed Sacrament while also averaging 45 hours a week as a consultant helping companies develop instructional materials. “The only thing important to me is my family, and I feel that volunteering demonstrates to my children that they are the priority in my life,” she says. “They see me in the classroom and around the school all of the time, and they know that I care about their education and their success.”

Comments   

# Janet Kinneberg 2009-01-02 05:54
Just to add a comment as a parent at the same school-- Amy made the entire process of volunteering easier on both the person (teachers/staff, lunchroom coordinator, various committee heads) looking for help and the entire parent community. Amy helped to ensure that parents knew of the volunteer opportunities that were posted online as well as various community events through an email "alert" system that she created. Everyone feels included, and is equally invited and able to participate. Our parents are asked to contribute at least 20 hours per year, and participation has increased immensely with the development of this interactive website. Last year we had three families log over 250 hours, and thirty-five families contributed over 100 hours, out of approx. 210 families. Amy was open and collaborative in creating the site, and our community was enhanced and relationships deepened. Great job, Amy!

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