by Bonita Gooch
When LaTonia Kennedy talks about her new job, she doesn’t start with programs or acronyms. She starts with people.
“It’s going to take the whole community to get families where they need to be, or students where they need to be,” she says.
As Wichita Public Schools’ (USD 259) Director of Family and Community Engagement, Kennedy is charged with turning that belief into a system—one that helps students by helping families and by engaging supportive community partners.
In this position she directs a series of programs that connects families to resources that help remove barriers to student learning, engages community partners to expand opportunities for students, and ensures parents are respected and valued as essential partners in their children’s education.
Before stepping into her current position, Kennedy had already earned the community’s trust as the successful principal of Gordon Parks Academy. Under her leadership, the school became one of the district’s brightest success stories—assessment scores climbed, students enjoyed enriching experiences as far away as Paris, and families from across Wichita sought to enroll their children there.
To say the community was “sad” to see her leave is an understatement, but in her new role she continues to make a positive difference.
Reflecting on the transition, she explains: “As a principal, I could change the trajectory of students’ lives. In this role, I can create partnerships that change the trajectory of families. That’s just as impactful.”
A New Role Centered on Families
At the heart of the portfolio of programs she oversees is a new Community Schools pilot, a national strategy now underway at seven Wichita schools. The purpose of Community Schools, Kennedy explains, is to connect families within the schools with community resources.
The pilot is being implemented exclusively in Title I schools—the district’s highest-poverty schools, where there is often a gap between family needs and family resources. Each school has a Community School Coordinator who starts with a needs assessment—identifying what families say they need most—and then builds partnerships to bring in outside support.
A Title I grant pays for the site coordinators’ salaries without tapping the district’s general funds. The program was introduced to the district by the Wichita Federation of Teachers. The union studied a model in Albuquerque, then partnered with the district administration and the board of education to bring it home.
For Kennedy, seeing the union, district, and board working together so collaboratively was powerful—and it set the tone for the program itself, which relies on cooperation at every level.
At schools such as Adams and Stanley, coordinators helped secure on-site washers and dryers through a Whirlpool grant so families can do laundry at school. For many families, this simple addition meets a very real need.
At Stanley, a partnership with the church next door connects families to fresh produce boxes. Coordinators are developing ESOL/English classes for parents in buildings with large Spanish-speaking populations. And in a notable collaboration with DCF, staff can connect families to services before a concern escalates into a full case—flipping the script from punishment to support.
More Programming
Kennedy’s second major area of focus is the district’s network of Family Engagement Contacts—one in every Title I school. These are often classroom teachers who receive a stipend to plan literacy nights, math nights, and conference-time learning activities that include a clear educational component (not just entertainment) for families. Title I can cover child care so parents can attend Family Engagement Programming.
Kennedy’s team supports these staffers with professional development, materials, and logistics, ensuring every event is purposeful and accessible.
She also champions the state-mandated School Site Councils, which bring teachers, administrators, students, families, community leaders, and local businesses to the same table at least three times a year. These councils don’t make policy, but they do surface concerns and shape strategies tied to student success.
A fourth pillar is the African American Student Advisory Council, a monthly gathering of community leaders focused on removing barriers to Black students’ success. Out of that work came Scholar Sideline Support, a new collaboration between Wichita Public Schools, Wichita Collective Impact, and Wichita Parks & Recreation that takes district and community resources to youth sporting events—where families already are. Think: the library bus signing kids up for cards, information on district programs and supports, community partners on site, and a family-friendly atmosphere with snacks and prize drawings. “We’ve just got to go to them, and that’s what we’re doing,” Kennedy says.
THer department also includes the Parent and Community Support Network, led by Carla Clement, a veteran problem-solver who mediates concerns between families and the district to find practical resolutions.
A Career Rooted in Education
If the first half of Kennedy’s story is systems, the second half explains why she’s so good at building them.
Kennedy, who grew up in Overton, Texas, and married and follower her **high-school sweetheart to Wichita found a home at USD 259 in 1990, starting as an elementary teacher.
Early on, she left the district to raise the couple’s four children but couldn’t stop teaching. She founded the Learning Express Educational Center where she provided structured-literacy tutoring for students with dyslexia—often on a sliding scale so families could afford it.
She returned to the district at Coleman Middle School, first as an in-school suspension teacher (where she turned the room into a culture-building classroom), then as a reading interventionist and eighth-grade language arts teacher. Later came a move to Hamilton Middle School as instructional coach, and then to Gordon Parks Academy as assistant principal and, ultimately, principal.
At Gordon Parks, Kennedy led with a mix of academic urgency and expansive vision. So after a decade as a principal — a position she says is the toughest in the district — she decided she was ready to retire, and admits, “I wanted to go out on top.”
However, when the Director of Family and Community Engagement role opened, she saw a capstone that matched her calling. The transition has brought a different pace—“I even had time to make a lasagna,” she laughs—but not a different purpose.
Whether it’s washers and dryers on campus, a Saturday resource fair at the 50-yard line, or a parent finally getting a call back and a plan from the right district office, Kennedy’s work is about meeting families where they are and walking with them toward where they want to be.
“Community” is in her title, but for Kennedy, it’s also the method. Build trust. Share power. Solve real problems. And keep the doors—school doors, opportunity doors—open.
This article was republished here with the permission of: The Community Voice