Blogs

Special districts need the public understand the important role they play in the community for constituents to value and advocate for district services. In recognition of the good work special districts are doing with schools and students, leveraging them as important partners, CSDA has developed a new platform for members to share insights and resources, and to learn from and collaborate with one another. 

CSDA would like to introduce members to the new School Outreach and Student Engagement Community and Document Library to better support your school partnership needs. We have provided a few sample General Overview and Resources that could be helpful to you:

• PowerPoint from our 2020 School Partnership webinar: to provide an overview of key lessons and examples of effective school partnerships
• One page Why & How summary on the value of school partnerships
• School Partnership PowerPoint Template:  to customize for your discussions with schools 

CSDA also created a summary of featured member districts with their education programming as sample “Program Models” and uploaded “Sample Curricula” for fire, utilities, mosquito, and water districts. 

Several of CSDA members have also started to share their efforts and resources to partner with schools, such as:

• Resource Conservation District of Santa Monica Mountains sharing their schedule, funding, community volunteering training strategies and resources to engage with thousands of students in their community despite being a tiny special district with ~5 FTEs.
• Central San (Central Contra Costa Sanitary District) sharing their award-winning citizens academy program, Central San Academy, to build community with their customers by helping them understand the district’s functions, community role, and operations as a local government agency, including sample resources to introduce the public to the importance of local government, and spurring the development of Dublin San Ramon Services District’s award winning Virtual Citizen’s Water Academy.
• Dublin San Ramon Services District for sharing their comprehensive Virtual Citizen’s Water Academy model programming, which motivated program graduates to run for a special district board. Resources provided include agendas, PowerPoints, and supporting documents for every session of the virtual academy to build community trust and transparency.
• San Gabriel Valley Mosquito Control Vector District sharing their mosquito vector resources for teachers across K-12 grade levels, their messaging and strategy around liability certificates to effectively partner with schools, -- and their hands-on community-based Citizen Science programs to train students as citizen scientists to amplify the district’s core service. See their invitation to join their Educator Spotlight event this Wednesday to discuss 21st Century Science Education!

• Upload your education programming resources and templates to share your good work with peers while supporting other districts to initiate or further school partnerships. 
• Start a discussion thread about a school partnership challenge you would like this community to help troubleshoot. Or, start a thread about some important lessons that you and/or your district have learned.
• Share your feedback with us to improve the platform to better serve your needs. 
• Are the folders and resources helpful? What might be excessive or redundant? What seems missing or would be even more helpful?
• How else could CSDA or this platform better support your school partnerships?

Thanks again to all of you who have contributed to the library, started discussion threads, and shared your education programming with us to build up school partnerships! Let’s build a thriving community of special district partnerships!  If you haven’t logged onto the School Outreach and Student Engagement Communities Library, check it out!