Blythe Academy of Languages’ SIC Earns Honorable Mention Award
The annual Riley Award for SIC Excellence was created in 2002 to recognize the significant contributions made to public education by the nearly 15,000 School Improvement Council members who volunteer in every public school in the state. The award is named in honor of Governor Riley and his late wife, Tunky, and recognizes the couple’s longstanding commitment to quality public education.
The Blythe Academy SIC held Advocacy 101 training for their SIC and PTA leadership as well as interested parents and community members, instructing them on how to appropriately and effectively contact elected leaders and encouraging them to let their voices be heard. They partnered with a local education advocacy group to create a phone/email tree making hundreds of contacts to elected officials on important legislative issues throughout the legislative session. And they took their concerns directly to their local elected officials by meeting with their State Representative and Senator, as well as their local Congressman, to share their concerns and expectations. Finally, they began sharing what they had learned with other interested schools and community leaders bringing greater attention to issues facing public education and inspiring similar advocacy activities across our district. In fact, the model that the Blythe SIC has created gives SICs across our State a perfect blueprint to follow to increase school and community engagement in public policy decision making and public education advocacy efforts. This is an invaluable resource as public education continues to face many challenges over the coming years.